Wine Wednesday :: A Dinner to Remember part 1

Another hump day but boy do I have a treat for you if you are into quality food.  Of course, it might also drive you a little crazy to see these pictures and hear me talk about it but you'll have to bear with me because this is soooo worth it.  Because we were at the restaurant for about four hours, I've decided to split up our experience into two parts to do all the foods and wines justice.

For the foodies in my readership, you may have heard of the impending ban on foie gras in California (if duck liver sounds nasty, you've got to try it before you knock it).  With that in mind, Corby, myself, and some of our friends with rather gourmet tastes, planned our farewell to this delectable dish.  The chosen location of our last supper was Marche Moderne.  A phenomenal restaurant that you need to visit at least once in your life time.  And while it is definitely more expensive than your average eatery, this place is actually reasonable in their prices and portions for the quality and kinds of food that you are getting (I'll show you more in a bit).

But I do want to mention that I DO NOT EAT LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME!!!!  I would love to - don't get me wrong.  I would probably be working 24/7 to support a habit like that.  And I would probably stop appreciating it quite as much as I do now.  But anyway.  I just wanted to share that this was a VERY special occasion and I wanted to share it with my readers.  It is actually one of the ways that I learned a lot about wine pairings with food.  When someone truly knows how to match a good wine with excellent food, the experience will be like this one.

So on Saturday night, this is what I ate and drank.  I almost passed out...I definitely went to another dimension.  Almost.

 The evening started out with an amuse bouche of red pepper soup with brioche toast topped with tapenade and we started our wine tour with an AMAZING 2009 Francois Villard Condrieu.  SOOOOOO good!!!  (If anyone is looking for a high class white wine to wow people with - look no further!) This Condrieu was clean and crisp when you first smell and sip.  But as the evening progressed and it continued to breath, there was an even more elegant nose.  The taste made me think of driving through citrus groves where you can just make out lemon and orange in the air but it almost eludes you.  This wine was probably one of my all time favorite whites.  I am putting that down here in writing.  My favorite white wine to date.

 Our appetizer for the evening were these ridiculously good fried pig ears with crispy brussel sprouts tossed in a vinaigrette.  Whodathunk.  Pig ears, brussel sprouts, and vinegar.  The people at Marche Moderne.  That's who.  Go visit. Eat.  Ok, I'll stop plugging them.  I know the food will be enough. (If you are in the area and want to go visit, hit me up.  I'll come with.)  =)

These two dishes formed our next course.  The top picture is a truffle pizza.  Yes, you heard me.  Truffle pizza.  (Fyi, we are not talking chocolate truffles.  We are talking about the kind that pigs find in the ground.  And they are heavenly.  If you haven't tried any yet...you might want to consider not going there because they are addicting.)  In addition to the truffles (which would have been quite enough), there is prosciutto and burata cheese.  Un-be-liev-able. 


The second dish is a little more complex but just as amazing.  Morel mushrooms surround a red wine emulsion that has a poached egg on top of it.  Those flavors were crazy!  I could have stopped at this point in the evening but we were barely getting started.  

 With those two dishes we had this beautiful Bordeaux.  ' Nuf said.  Bordeaux is quickly becoming my favorite red wine.  Try one if you have not yet had a chance.  I have tried a couple of Bordeaux recently (2009 was a wonderful year for that region in France) and you can get some excellent wines for reasonable prices.  This one though...this one was a little leathery (in a good way) but well balanced with some dark berry tones to it as well.

And I think I will finish the first half of this tale here.  There are still three dishes and wines to do.  You will not want to miss it.  =)

Have a beautiful day!