Wine & Dine

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The monthy "wine & dine" dinner was held at Duong Son restaurant in Westminister. Really appreciate the food here after China.

There were 18 people a two large round tables. Some new faces and a few that I had not seen in awhile. A lot of nice wines were poured. I did not keep track of them but I brought a 2003 Sea Smoke Bottela Pinot which was showing well. A bottle of 2005 Chateau Margene Sangiovese was a surprise. I have not opened mine yet and I was nice to see what it was about. I will let mine lay down for another year or so. It was a very big wine. There was a 2003 Gary Farrell Rochioli Pinot brought, It was nice but not spectacular. There was a good Italian Nebiollo, a Chablis that was really good and several others at our table that were top notch wines. I also opened later in the dinner at 2003 Turley Old Vine Zin. Great taste.

The food tonight was heavy in the seafood department.

Lettuce wraps with shrimp - personally I like the chicken version better. It was good but did not seem to have enough flavor for me.

Tofu with seafood sauce. Doung Son's tofu is outstanding. I could learn to like the stuff if I could have it cooked this way all the time.

Garlic green beans with sea bass. This has become a staple dish for us. So much flavor.

Fat noodles with seafood, chicken and beef. Finally a dish that Margie could eat. She does not do seafood so at this stage we let her have the chicken and beef out of this dish.

Salt & pepper calamari - another staple and so much better than the big chain restaurant's.

Jelly fish - strips of jelly fish sauteed and a little on the crispy side. This was dish that went either way. You either loved it or not. I thought it was great and so did Terry. He finished the platter of it.

Barbecued ribs - another dish we order frequently. It has almost a maple syrup flavor and it is so good.

Fried Beef - I had this dish in China and it was a new one for me. Duong Son's version was slightly different but the flavor was top notch. We will have to have this again.

Dessert was mango slices, sweet dumplings with lotus seed filling and their strange warm tapioca type pudding. Don't know what it is bit is another one of those yes/no dishes.

Can't wait for another trip to this restaurant.