Sunday, October 19, 2008

October's Wine & Dine

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Tonight we gathered at Ante's Restaurant in San Pedro for CJ's monthly wine and dine event. There were 15 of us tonight. Some good wines were brought. I did not taste most of them and I did not keep track but a couple of them were very good. There were 3 Grand Cru's. Kent brought a 1974 Sauterne for dessert and it was outstanding. I brought a 2007 Hill Family, Napa Valley, Chardonnay which I felt was very good and it paired well with the seafood. I also brought a 2003 Loring, Gary's Vineyard, Pinot Noir. I was disappointed with this wine. It was not up to Loring's standards. It had quite a funky nose which blew off but the wine lacked substance. It had upfront fruit then fell off.

Out appetizers tonight were Antipasto, sauteed shrimp, calamari steak and steamed clams .
The Entrees included, "Sarma" - cabbage rolls, "Kiseli Kupus", sauerkraut, pork, sausage and vegetables (this is a favorite of mine), "Balacane", eggplant parmesan and "Pecena Patke", roast duck with Ante's special rice. I had so many appetizers that I took very small portions of the entrees. The duck was good. Not on the scale of Doung Son but nevertheless a good dish.

For dessert we had apple strudel with vanilla ice cream. Darka the waitress gave us all a wine stopper. Mine had fishnet stocking legs. She has a small gift shop close to the restaurant. I thought the gesture was very nice.



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