The Farewell Tour - Pt II

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The Farewell Tour - Pt II
On Saturday night (22 July) we met with a small circle of friends. A small intimate dinner party for ten was hosted by our very good friends Mark & Darin. Mark is the best amateur gourmet cook/chef I know. He has an outstanding sense of how food and wine work together. Best of all, he has a creative streak that sets apart the excellent from the outstanding chefs.
This is the menu from that dinner - read an salivate 

Entree
Caviar Bar
Marcona Almonds
Breadsticks with prociutto
Champagne

Appetizer
Lamb meatballs with mango salsa
2005 Rocky Gully Dry Riesling


Soup
Cucumber water with Minted Crab Salad

Salad
Tri of salads:
Baby greens with raspberry/tarragon vinaigrette,
Tomato and mozzarella,
Beet and carrot with kiwi vinaigrette
Sauvignon Blanc (failed to make note of vintage & name - my bad)

Pasta
Butternut Squash Ravioli w/sage butter and fried leaves
2004 Muscadet - Cotes de Grandlieu
Domaine Les Hautes Noelles

Seafood
Moules et Plourdes a la Mariniere
(mussels)

Dinner
Roasted Boneless Quail with Marsala sauce
Wild Mushroom Ragout
Fried polenta points
2002 Valpollicella
Secco-Burtani
Valpantina Ripasso

Main Course
Grilled rack of lamb with herbed oil
Garlic mashed potatoes
Sauteed Brussels sprout leaves
2003? L’Ecole 41
Cabernet Sauvignon

Port & Coffee
(a very fine ruby port…it was getting late in the evening and all that)

Desserts
Chocolate Ecstacy:
Chocolate Pots de Crème, brownie, gelato
Crème Chantilly

The festivities began at 5:30 and concluded somewhere around 11ish PM…it was a bit hazy. Having learned from a previous gathering, we departed in a cab  We did conclude the evening with a midnight walk accompanied by our dogs

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Comments

[Dave]

I felt bad already...
for having been out of town on the blessed evening.

[Mark Baradziej]

Grazie mille!
Wow! Thank you so much for all the kind words, Israel! I'm glad you enjoyed the evening...it was a pleasure to cook for you and your friends. Darin and I are missing you both already. You've been gone over a week and so far nothing added to your blog...getting a little worried! Hope all is well...