Dinner with friends

                                   

The eating last weekend was particularly fine. Saturday night we went to eslim's house for a much-anticipated dinner as he and his wife have always been the perfect hosts.

Eight people sat down to enjoy the hostess's "greatest hits", a series of finely tuned creations beautifully cooked and of the utmost deliciousness. There was much laughter and the wines flowed freely. Everyone else except I was a wine expert, heck even that is an understatement of sorts as I was in the company of  a wine maker and the GM of a major wine distributor; safe to say my palate and wine appreciation went through a good polishing too.

First dish was Crab Cake with Wasabi Sauce & Tobiko. The cakes were almost entirely crab, no fillers, served with a mildly pungent wasabi-tobiko sauce and greens tossed with sweet basil vinaigrette. I hope they made extra, these crab cakes would be the ultimate snack eaten in front of the telly while watching a late night movie. 

                                 

The light and crisp Beer Batter Prawns that came next hid a marvelous surprise of salted egg yolks, now these were so yummy I would sneak to eat under the blanket and not share with anybody.

Followed by Lotus Leaf wrapped Monkfish with Miso Paste. Monkfish is hard to procure here, I savoured each bite of the sweet fish which was perfectly accompanied by translucent barley grains infused with the miso fish broth.

                               

Tofu with Pork Cracklings, light and just a little bit indulgent.

                                 

More indulgent of course was the Wagyu Beef with Spinach in Herbal Stock. Behold the sculptural grains of the meat.

                               

Before they were bathed with an aromatic herbal stock rich with the scent of wolfberries. An inspired creation, and seemingly easy too.

The final course, before dessert, was Spicy Lamb with Aloo Gobi. I love Aloo Gobi and would always order it at Indian restaurants, potatoes, cauliflower and mustard seeds are perfect together, and well, the version here was fantastic. The hostess was saying that she roasted three racks of lamb and would we want extras, actually inside I was wishing I had space in my stomach to eat more of her the Aloo Gobi; not that the lamb was not good, it was in fact, tres delicieux, but aloo gobi is well, aloo gobi. 

                              

Finale: Iced Jelly with Aloe Vera. She actually made the gorgeous ice bowls of rose petals and mint leaves to hold the soothing and refreshing ginger-lemongrass jelly.

                              

The wines. The M.A.D label was a 'preview', it is not released for sale yet.

   

Comments

[ivan]

Yes, they are the most perfect hosts. ;)

[slurp!]

agree, excellent host & the dishes were amazing too.
not too sure about wines as i'm just clueless when it comes to fermented grape juices hehehehe ....

[slurp!]

actually yourself & CW are excellent hosts as well! ;)

[umami]

ivan, hear hear!

slurp, it was very nice, and thanks!

[boo_licious]

Great stuff - I just had the lemongrass jello on Sat nite. So yummy with aloe vera cubes and lime sorbet.

[umami]

boo_licious, yes isn't it good? tropical, refreshing and so healthy.