Friday, September 5, 2008

Party time!

Friend and blogger Charlie hosted a helluva wine tasting party and with his infinite generosity allowed guests to taste some pretty fantastic stuff from his collection. Of course, a party ain't a party without food so everyone pitched in to assemble a feast of cheeses, prosciutto-wrapped cheese-stuffed figs, a very refreshing salad (with strawberries!), bruschetta, cheesecake, and meats to slap on the grill.

We racked up quite a calorie count...

Condensation ruined the labels' appearance.

Here are some of the wines we tried on top of two bottles of bubbly. Yeah that's what I call champagne. Got a problem wit dat?

Because I'm still an amateur, you'd best talk to Charlie about the wines. Don't get me wrong, I took plenty of notes, but mah man Charlie can provide SO much more information.


Beautiful rack of lamb sitting on top of some flank steaks. Sausages not pictured. Because I couldn't get used to the idea of spitting, my memories of the evening are really fuzzy. Want the recipe we used for the meat? Sorry I don't remember it. The only details I remember are from my wine notes. Amazing how legibly I write even when intoxicated...

Let's look at the lamb again:


Did you know we have five taste sensations? Sweet, Sour, Bitter, Salty, and Umami. Chomp into a well grilled hunk of meat like the lamb here and you'll see what umami tastes like. That meaty "sweetness" really jolts my nucleus accumbens. Lookit me using my neurobio knowledge from last year.

So at this point, I had a good buzz going and was beginning to move onto the drunkeness stage, hence the lack of additional pictures to show the collective effort that dinner required.
But I must give credit when it is due!
Many apologies to:
1. Sharon, whose stuffed figs looked as delicious as she. (Oh they tasted great, too.)
2. Chris' gal pal (::grumble:: I TOLD YOU I'm horrible with names and you looked at me like I was silly) for the great salad and bruschetta. LOVED the dressing, btw.
3. Chris for the additional two bottles of wine.
4. Frank for those franks and endless entertainment. You tasted avocado in the Burgundy huh?



In case you are wondering why I have deviated so much from my usual writing style...

Yeah I'm kinda buzzed right now.


Thank you once again, Charlie.


5 comments:

j. yoon photo said...

oooooh i want some lamb!!!

Charlie Fu said...

i need a camera like yours!

Charlie Fu said...

man i sure can grill a meat piece of meat.

Roger said...

haha yeah you sure can.

Sharon said...

Hi Roger! Thanks for the shout out. So you're the one who writes Fifth Deadly Sin! I check these food blogs religiously. Good to meet you in the flesh.

Charlie, that lamb was phenomenal. Chris and Allison, the salad was delicious!!

Are we still tasting pear, dirt, and avocado in our wine? :) I learned a lot from that night.