Ante's Croatian Restaurant

Saturday, October 10, 2009

CJ's Wine & Dine group met tonight at Ante's in San Pedro. We have dined here many times before. The food seems to be a mix of many cultures, Germanic, Italian , Greek and the Baltic countries.

We started out the the "Antipasto" platter - salami, ham, cheese, pickled carrots, radishes, celery etc. I only eat the meats and cheese. I find everything else does not come close to pairing with wine so why screw up my palate for something I can do without.

Next we were served "Sauteed Shrimp and Sauteed Calamari Steak". The garlic butter sauce is to die for. Best with hunks of bread soaked in it. Both of these dishes were excellent. There were a couple of white wines that paired perfectly with these dishes.

We were then served a "Dalmatian Salad". Just lettuce with a few other things in it. I passed on the salad. It had a vinaigrette dressing and unless you have a very low acidic wine you cannot drink a wine with this and have a "wine & food" experience.

The entrees served were "Cevapcici" - seasoned mince meat shaped into kebab rolls and served with raw onion. This is CJ's favorite dish. I find that is a tab too dry for me. I will eat one or maybe half but I am a "just this side of dead" meat person and meat cooked dry simply does not appeal to me. And the raw onions are another wine turnoff.

"Sarma" was served - seasoned ground beef and rice rolled in cabbage leaves. It had a very light tomato sauce on it and this is one of my favorite dishes. I had "cabbage rolls" a lot growing up and I suppose it might be said that it is "comfort food" for me. I just missed the potatoes that we always had with cabbage rolls.

Bowls of "Kisell Kupus" were put on the table. Sauerkraut, pork, sausage and vegetables. I have always liked this dish because they cook the sauerkraut dry. But I had a hard time finding "vegetables" in this dish and very little sausage.

Lastly bowls of "Mostacciolli" were served. One with a meat sauce and one with garlic, olive oil and bay shrimp. There is nothing great about these dishes, but nothing negative also. To me they were "fillers".

All the "entrees" seemed to pair well with a variety of the red wines. There were at least 24 wines on the table and by reason of "sanity" I need not try them all. After all I had to navigate the "Vincent Thomas" bridge, downtown Long Beach, Belmont Shore, Naples, Seal Beach and Sunset Beach to get home. All popular places for "Johnny Law" to hang out.

A good group this evening but one of the earliest Wine & Dine dinners endings. Most of us were out the door around 9:00 pm. Some of the die hards were going to a another local "watering hole" to prolong the evening.

Next month The Wine & Dine group meets at my favorite Chinese place - Doung Son.