Hello Friends! I have been super busy lately and feel like I've been running around with my head cut off. Have no fear, I've been having lots of fun in the meantime. Last week I was lucky enough to attend an amazing wine dinner at Les Bourgeois winery, right here in Mid-Mo. The event was part of Inside Columbia's Food and Wine Festival. Inside Columbia is a great local magazine and I am fortunate enough to have a friend that works there, hence the reason I got to attend such a fancy dinner (thanks Kenneth!).
The food was amazing and I took lots of pictures to share with you guys! It was such a fun night, and the rain let up just in time for us to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the Missouri River. (Bare with me, I took these pictures with my phone!)
For the Amuse-Bouche, chef Adam Wells-Morgan, did a play on the classic BLT. His version was called a "PLT", with pork belly, cherry pate, baby lettuce and tomato confiture on a house made brioche mini bun. So yummy! It tasted just like a burger, and I loved it very much.
What was really cool was that the Chef came out in between each course and gave a description of what we were about to eat, it added a personal touch and it was wonderful to meet the person who prepared our food :)
For our salad course we had seared yellow fin tuna crudo with blood orange (on the right), and macadamia nut rouille, fresh basil, toy box tomato and avocado (left). The tuna stole my heart. So gorgeous! And delicious!
For the soup course we had Braised duck and local goat cheese agnolotti with spring asparagus and baby leeks in a fortified duck broth. I have to be honest, the idea of duck threw me, but it was salty and savory and oh-so-good!
DRUM ROLL, PLEASE! The next course was by far the most surprisingly delectable thing I have eaten in my entire 24 years of life. I say that because mushrooms are not my favorite thing, I normally pick them out of most everything and feed them to my dog (just kidding, she hates them too). Enough anticipation, here you go...
'Morel Mushroom Ménage À Trois' or mushrooms 3 ways. The first from the left is a morel fried and served with a sweet pepper confitu, the middle morel is fried with a truffle mustard vinaigrette (it tasted similar to quiche and butter), the morel on the far right was fried in bacon fat and served with caramelized shallots (delish, and by far my favorite). I know I'm not doing these descriptions justice, but I want you to understand how delicious it all was and the actual names are fancy and confusing.
Next was Intermezzo, or a palette cleanser (if I know what I'm talking about, and I may not). It was a lychee and basil semifreddo. It was cool and light, and surprisingly good. No picture here, sorry.
The main course was Sous vide veal tenderloin with Burger’s country ham, pistachio ravioli sautéed crepes and smoked ham hock veal demi-glace. I had never eaten veal tenderloin, but it was perfection on a plate. It was so soft and buttery and melted in my mouth, seriously no need to chew. I wasn't a huge fan of the pistachio ravioli, or maybe just how it went with the veal, which surprised me because I love pistachios. But, overall it was a wonderful main course and I could have eaten three helpings.
For dessert we had a Banana Bread “French Toast” with peanut butter mousse, dark chocolate nougat and salted caramel-toasted peanut praline.
Oh. Em. Gee. This was good. However, after four courses and four glasses of wine, I was stuffed. I was so sad to let the waitress take my plate away with half of it uneaten, but I had no choice (tear).
You may be wondering, what about the wine? I thought this was a wine dinner? Being the bad blogger that I am, I failed to write down all the names. To be fair they only told us about the wines, and after five glasses the names allude you. So all I can say is, they were very tasty. I am so grateful to have a friend that works for Inside Columbia and could score me a free ticket to an amazing local event. I am one lucky (and plump) girl! I felt like a Top Chef judge all night long.
