dinner last night with three wine friends

Ahi Tartare Cones
-fresh hawaiian yellowfin tuna, asian pear, shiso, sesame seeds, spicy yuzu ponzu, wasabi tobiko
-crisp, delightful, shiso was an inspired addition
1990 Bollinger Grand Annee
-yum. nice toasted brioche, aged chardonnay qualities

French Foie Gras Torchon
-carmelized pineapple quince, white pepper honey gastric, toasted brioche
-it is foie gras torchon, ya know. the white pepper gave it a little piquance. very good
1997 Vigneau-Chevreau Vouvray
-paired well with the dish

Peekytoe Crab
-Green apple gelle with crab in an avocado aoili, slice shiso leaves and sweet potato crisp
-yum. the green apple gelle was tart and sweet and with the hints of shiso cut through the aoili

Pan Roasted Salinas Quail
-champagne savoy cabbage, braised du puy lentils, carmelized apples, organic cider glaze
-lentils were wonderful. not dry. cooked in cream.
2001 Latour Corton-Charlemagne
-pretty terrible pariing (our fault we selected the wines).

Pan Roasted Arctic Char
-braised escarole, wild mushroom fricasse, red wine sauce, parnsip mash
-wonderful sear on top. the mushrooms were divine. i love this time of year
2002 Peter Michael Le Moulin Rouge
-very big in all respects. too much so for my taste but it was interesting to try it and balanced despite all levels raised to the top. it may be a better wine in 2-3 years (though i fear it may fall apart later).

Double Seared Kobe Beef Tri-Tip
grilled maiitake mushrooms, potato croquettes, tamari demi glaze
-did i mention i love this time of year. steak was a little tough (it is tri tip) but very flavorful and the combination of flavors was excellent
1997 Felsina Chianti Classico Riserva Berardenga
-nice cherry core, ripe, detectable bret that was not overbearing but i could have done without its role in this wine. but still a a very nice bottle.

Cheese Course
didn't write them down. huge. too much.
1999 Suideraut 2nd label Sauternes

Dessert Course
didn't write them down. buttons were popping.

and as you all know, the mark up on wine is so low. 50% above retail or 2.2 times wholesale (e.g. our pinot is on the list for 60). crazy. it allows you to get silly and order 5 wines and not walk out completely broke. the service was excellent. timing was good to the extent i did not notice a delay or even think about it. excellent meal.

Plumpjack is such a great choice for dinner after the Fort Mason Wine events. They have always been very accomodating, splitting appetizers (one ahi cone each for seven of us), even offering to make a dish with a different sauce to pair with a special wine. As reasonable as the wine list is, you can save even more by buying wine at their wine shop. They'll put a sticker on the bottle and charge you a small amount to consume it in the restaurant.

Thanks again for the great visit last week.

We had the lamb and duck courses, plus the chef gave us a soup served in little cappuccino cups, PLUS the pumpkin dessert compliments of the Chef and Sus Chef. I brought in two half bottles from the wine shop (Brillec Salmon NV Brut and Domaine du Durban Muscat Beaume de Venice) and we had

Foie Gras with Brioche (NV Champagne)
Her Lamb that was literrally able to be cut with a spoon (She had a Malbec)
I had the three duck dish, duck thigh, breast and WONDERFUL sausage with a CdP
Dessert was beautiful, but I can't recall what she had. THe chocolate cake I had was all right, Garibaldi's prime dessert is better, SHE makes a better one, but then they brought out a pumkin dish that was to DIE for! (Dessert with the Moscato)

My little review

"We ate out at Plumpjack Cafe. It was a bit of a mess, the day I mean. But it
was fun. It hailed here in Livermore while we were picking up her dress from
Torrid, and I ran out in the hail to get the car for her, even though I legally
can't drive. Her hair was curled up nicely and I wasn't about to let the hail
ruin it for her. THen, I cabbed around san Francisco, got a bit lost, found the
wine shop and the retaurant, changed our reservations for a later time, bought
some wine with dinner and made it back to the hotel in a decent fashion. We got
a little lost because she thought I said 13, instead of 3100, but no biggie.

As usual, they had two roses in water for us that I prearranged, a magnificent
dinner complete with foie gras appetizers, a white truffle soup served in neat
little cappucino cups, an extra dessert and our two wines, plus a glass of new
wine with dinner. We (she, really) was thoroughly toasted after dinner, but we
were full, I won't give you the details on our meals but the service was
BEAUTIFUL! I spent something lke $148, on the two of us, plus the extra money
for brinigng in our wines and then we came back to the hotel with it's king
sized bed, warm room and TV (cable tv lol!) and crashed for a great night of
sleep. The only problem was the stupid hotel workers down the street
who were on strike at 7 AM!"

All in all the service was just unbelievable. There was another couple sitting two tables away that were celebrating their 25th anniversary and they wished us 21 more years of bliss I felt bad for undertipping the waiter, but I just sent off a card (forgot to explain personally) that we just relocated, his tip was NOT a reflection of bad service and that we'd tel all our friends about our wonderfully romantic experiece. I also offered him a free download of my work, which if he doesn't take it due to my subject matter, is cool with me.

Sascha

Okay, I'll ask. What's "shiso"?

I've heard it called Japanese Basil. It's related to mint and basil and goes by several different names.