Valentine's Dinner

As promised, here's a description of our Valentine's Day dinner at Cafe Gutenberg.

Course 1:
Watercress Vichysoisse paired with Hazard Hill, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc Blend 2004
It was a nice dish to start the night out with. The wine was a clean flavor that went well with a creamy soup.

Course 2:
Confit Duck Spring Roll with apricot and ginger sauce paired with Dr. Fischer Riesling 2005
These were wonderful. Of course, as they say, everything tastes good fried. The duck confit had some spice to it so the Riesling was a nice choice that held up well to the dish.

Course 3:
Roasted Candy Striped Beets with danablu arborio crust paired with Araucano Carmenere 2005
In case you're not familiar, arborio rice is the one used to make risotto. Therefore, the crust was quite creamy while also have a crunchy texture. The wine is a red from Chile that was strong like the beets.

Course 4:
Miso Crusted Rainbow Trout with red chili aioli paired with Morgadio Albarino 2005
I remember liking this course but as you can imagine, we were starting to get drunk at this point (we also had 2 glasses of champagne before the dinner started).

Course 5:
Mussels Gratinee baked in salt paired with Domain Pabiot Sancerre 2005
The mussels were baked in their shells with Parmesan cheese. The shells must have been placed in a bed of salt that was then placed in the oven for cooking. For plating, the chef put a bed of the roasted salt (it was brown) and then put the mussels on top. It was quite nice to get a few grains of the salt along with the mussel as it added a good crunch.

Course 6:
Pan-Seared Diver Scallops on the half shell paired with Petit M Muscadet 2004
These were not the best scallops I've had but weren't the worst either. The wine was a bit sweet but probably made sense to pair with the sweet scallops.

Course 7:
Petit Salad with fennel, grapefruit and mache paired with Saint Clair Sauvignon Blanc 2005
This course was unnecessary. Even so, the wine was a good pairing since it had hints of grapefruit.

Course 8:
Butter Poached Lobster Ravioli with fresh ricotta and sweet pea cream sauce paired with MacRostie Chardonnay 2005
As you can imagine, the lobster was quite nice. The chardonnay was a nice light one that added to the flavor of the dish.

Course 9:
Gianduja Chocolate Shadow Cake with dark chocolate lollipops paired with Paringa Sparkling Shiraz 2004
What can I say - it was chocolate, of course it was good!! The red champagne was a nice touch with the dark chocolate. I'm a big fan of champagne in general so it's nice to change it up a bit and have a dark one.

As I mentioned earlier, we were already drunk by about course 4. You can imagine how hard it was to get up on Thursday! I definitely had a hang over and I think that MTH was worse. It was well worth it though as the food and wine were so good. And, the best part was that this place is only 7 blocks from our apartment so there was no driving involved.