Dinner Menus – Second Sunday Supper Circle

January 10

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One of our historically themed nights. January 10th, events picked out from the previous century. It’s funny, looking back from 2015 when I’m adding this to the blog, we take for granted being able to search for and find all sorts of information from dates gone by. I remember when I was doing these dinners in the mid to late 1990s, how little information popped up in searches. Google was still a university research project throughout most of the time, it had only recently been incorporated and released as a public search engine around the time of this dinner. Most online searches I did were probably through WebCrawler, Lycos and AltaVista, which were the big three at the time – only not so big. Then again, neither was the World Wide Web – at the time of this dinner there were roughly three million pages on the web, today, the number is approaching 1 billion (and counting).


1999 is the beginning of the end of a millennium. The Second Sunday Supper Circle will celebrate the last thousand years over the upcoming months. The january dinner started out with a look back at music and musicals that were premiered on january 10ths through history. In the course of research, I found that this date is also the feast day of several saints – which is completely irrelevant given our non-religious bent, except that other research connected a certain russian theme together, thus making the life of St. Paul of Obrona, a monastic saint of the far north of russia, somewhat relevant. Well, not really, but at least there was a russian connection. Paul lived amongst the animals, probably didn’t eat them as we are about to, and generally communed with nature, god, etc. We begin dinner with a translated quote from the man himself. “Have unfeigned love among yourselves, keep the traditions, and may the god of peace be with you and confirm you in love.” Amen.


January
10, 1999

January 10, 1929; Edwin Rice and Kurt Weill premiere Street Scene on Broadway. Meanwhile, in Europe, Hergé introduces Belgian children and the world to Tintin and Milou with the release of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. We begin the evening with fish cakes based on an old Moscow-style cod dish and a bottle of 1988 Michel Frères Cremant de Bourgogne Blanc de Blancs Brut.

January 10, 1947; Yip Harburg premieres Finian’s Rainbow. Elizabeth Ann Short is last seen alive in the lobby of the Regal Biltmore Hotel. The infamous Black Dahlia murder is still a mystery. The Regal Biltmore’s bar names a cocktail after her. The Soviet government creates a secret uranium research project, that is only now coming to light, in the Sillamäe region of Estonia. We uncover our own secret project by opening up paper-baked flounder fillets with pink oyster mushrooms and enjoying it with a bottle of 1997 Pigato “le rus se ghine” from Riccardo Bruna.

January 10, 1928; George & Ira Gershwin and Signmund Romberg premiere Rosalie. Luxembourg issues a new stamp – it’s red. The Koshki District in Samara, home of the annual Grushin Music Festival and the Aladin Art Museum, is created. We celebrate with red borscht and the new release (1997) of Giuncheo’s Rossesse di Dolceacqua “Pian del Vescovo”.

January 10, 1945; Erskine Hawkins releases his now classic album Tuxedo Junction. Valentin Valentinovich Lazutkin, now the head of the Russian Federal TV and Radio Broadcasting Service, is born. The Battle of the Bulge ends. We begin it again with a dish of lamb and black-eyed pea puree based on an old Azerbaijani recipe – thus also getting in our black-eyed peas for the new year. Lamb pairs really well with 1976 Jasmin Côte Rôtie.

January 10, XXX; We feel slightly guilty about leaving out those other saints. Today is, after all, their feast day. There are numerous saints that various people celebrate today as their day. The only two widely agreed upon are: from the 7th century, St. Agatho, a Sicilian benedictine monk. In the 13th century, St. (Pope) Gregory (X), from Piacenza, in Emilia-Romagna. We momentarily leave the russian thing alone and eat some Ricotta Salata and Parmigiano with aged balsamico to commemorate, well, these guys. That balsamico needs a nice rich 1990 Amarone from Acinum to wash it down.

January 10, 1986; The Kennedy Center in Washington opens the first full-length (4 hours!) revival of Jerome Kerns’ Showboat. The Great Lakes Piping Plover officially becomes endangered. The russian thing returns, just because. We’re not eating plover. Not because it’s endangered. Because it’s dessert. Which happens to be cheesecake flavored with almonds, rosewater, saffron and cinnamon. From down-under, our accompaniment is a Sparkling Shiraz from Peter Rumball.

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Holiday Classics & 13 Year-Old Wines

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It was holiday season, it was the 13th, it was a theme… 13 year old wines, from 1985.

Second Sunday Supper Circle
Holiday Classics & 13 Year-Old Wines
13 December 1998

Coquilles Saint Jacques Crues au Osetra Caviar
1985 Veuve Clicquot “La Grande Dame”

Warm Partridge & Pear Salad
1985 Château Malartic-Lagravière Graves Blanc

Diamond Jim Brady’s Terrapin Soup
1985 Mastroberardino Taurasi

Slow-Simmered Goose Chiu-Chow Style
Buckwheat Latkes, Roasted Lady Apples
1985 Château Léoville-Poyferré St.-Julien

Aged Cows’-Milk Gouda, Aged Goats’-Milk Gouda,
Oak-Smoked Blue Wensleydale
1985 Château La Mission-Haut-Brion

Oven-Roasted Plum Cakes with Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce
1985 Bertani Recioto della Valpolicella “Valpantena”

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November Market Dinner

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A morning at the Union Square Market picking things out and figuring out what to do with them.

Second Sunday Supper Circle
November Market Dinner
11/8/98

Arugula & Stracchino Stuffed Pizza Bianca
N.V. Zonin Prosecco

Cippolini Onion Soup Topped with Fontina
1996 Pierre Boniface Vin de Savoie “Apremont” “Les Recailles”

Fried Green Tomatoes Wrapped in Smithfield Ham
1996 Zaca Mesa Gris

Broiled Chicken Breast with a Tarragon-Red Mustard Leaf Crust
Saute of Sunchokes & Salsify
1990 Livio Pavese Barbera d’Asti Superiore

Selection of Cheeses
N.V. Real Companhia Velha Fundador Tawny Port

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A Columbus Day Menu

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Celebrating Columbus Day before it became politically incorrect….

Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn, Squashes, Peppers & Cocoa
Italy, Spain & America Come Together
A Columbus Day Menu
Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn, Squashes, Peppers & Cocoa
Italy, Spain & America Come Together
October 11, 1998

Pomodori con Salsa Verde

1996 Bouchaine Gewurztraminer

Zuppa delle Zucce di Pueblo

1995 Peter Michael Chardonnay “Mon Plaisir”

Torta di Patate e Formaggio con Gallinacci Rosolati

1995 Scala Dei Priorato “El Cipres”

Mussoli Pepati al Fumo

1982 Torres Gran Corona

Gelato di Mais e Biscotti Piccante

1985 Bertani Recioto della Valpolicella

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The Incredible Edible Egg

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The egg was the star of the show…. And it may not be visible in the small photo, but the word egg appears in twenty, yes, twenty different languages!

The Incredible Edible Egg
Sunday, July 11, 1998

Mid-Ocean Country Club Style Flying Fish Caviar
Jaume Serra Cristalino Brut, N.V.

Roasted Egg Tomatoes, 1000 Year Old Eggs, Uni Sauce
Zenato Lugana di San Benedetto, 1997

White Eggplant Soup
Pra Soave Classico Superiore, 1996

Pan-Seared Butter Fish, Daikon Pudding, Mentaiko Sauce
Pra Soave Classico Superiore Monte Grande, 1996

Egg Farm Dairy Amram & Peekskill Pyramid Cheeses
Monte Vertine Il Novantuno di Sergio Manetti

Sunnyside Up
Egon Muller Scharzhoeberger Spatlese Riesling, 1975

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Mothers Day

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Obviously, we were celebrating Mothers’ Day… what more needs be said?

SECOND SUNDAY SUPPER CIRCLE
MOTHERS DAY     MAY 10 1998

FOR MOTHER’S DAY, THE ONLY THING
YOU’RE EATING IS TAKE-OUT…

Lobster & Black-Eyed Pea Tacos

N.V. Champagne Paul Bara Grand Rosé de Bouzy

Roast Beet & Cheese

1996 Plaisir de Merle Sauvignon Blanc

Mushroom “McMuffin”

1959 Brédif Vouvray

Kentucky Fried Pheasant & Side Salad

1993 Bouchaine Pinot Noir Reserve

The 4-Cheese Personal Pan Un-Pizza
(Bannon, Epoises, Gratte-Paille, Tuma dla Paja)

1982 Torres Gran Coronas Reserva

White Chocolate Frosty

1996 M. Chiarlo “Nivole” Moscato d’Asti

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Duckbill of Fare

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Obviously, duck was the theme of the month. And yes, “duckwheat” is a real thing, a.k.a “India wheat”.

Duckbill of Fare
Sunday, April 5, 1998

Tri-Color Asparagus with Duck Sauce Hollandaise
N.V. Champagne Tarlant Brut Reserve

Duck Consomme with Squid Linguini
1994 Abbona Pigaro

Rolled Duck Breast with Skatewing Forcemeat,
Lentils & Foie Sauce
1995 Zind Humbrecht Clos St. Urbain Riesling Grand Cru

Duck Confit & Rabbit Sausage Cassoulet
1992 Chateau Laffitte-Ceston Madiran

Duckett Caerphilly
1975 Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere

Tres Leches Duckwheat Babas with Galliano Poached Peaches
1994 Willi Opitz Weisser Schilfmandl

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Of Lions & Lambs

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I must assume that I was inspired by the old adage for March, “In like a lion, out like a lamb”. Not on the original menu, but I’ve added the sources of the quotes where I could find them.

March 8, 1998
Of Lions & Lambs

Ain’t we gonna have no supper?”

“Sure we are, If you gather up some dead willow sticks. I got three cans of beans in my bindle. You get a fire ready. I’ll give you a match when you get the sticks together. Then we’ll heat the beans and have supper.”
– Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

Baked Beans
Drappier “Val des Demoiselles” Rosé Brut

It was a wicked waste of food to see great big snails crawling about unmolested and uneaten.”…

One can hardly waste one’s food merely by the act of seeing snails. Literally construed, however, the sentence certainly does mean that anybody whose eye should chance to fall upon a snail in the garden is in that act suddenly guilty of a sensational act of economic extravagance.
– Rev. Canon Horsely, President of the Conchological Society, April 1906; the followup comment I couldn’t find online.

Brandied Snails
1993 Ronchi di Cialla “Ciallabianco”

It was now the middle of June, and the weather fine; and Mrs. Elton was growing impatient to name the day, and settle with Mr. Weston as to pigeon-pies and cold lamb, when a lame carriage-horse threw every thing into sad uncertainty.
– Emma, Jane Austen

Pigeon Pie
1994 Sanford “Barrel Select” Pinot Noir

I followed the direction of his eye through the door which stood open, and found it fixed wistfully on the savory breast of lamb, roasting in dripping richness before the fire. I now called to mind that, in the eagerness of my recondite investigation, I was keeping the poor man from his dinner.
– The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Washington Irving

Spoon Lamb
1983 Biondi-Santi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva

Cheese changes from county to county. Cheese can even change, like wine, from valley to valley. It is exactly because it is very old that it is always various and surprising; and it is exactly because humanity (with one dreadful voice) demands cheese, that cheese is always different. I am altogether in favour of such differences and the preservation of them.
– couldn’t find the citation online

English Cheeses
1979 Château Peyrabon

We have to put him in our museums and such places, just as we have to put tiny little chips of grey stone that look as if you could pick them up in the street, or homely-looking brown beetles at which no self-respecting child could look twice…

They ask us to search and prod our memories for the small things that so easily escape us; they attach importance to every little domestic incident, even to such a trifle as a lion.
– The heraldic lion, GK Chesterton (first quote); second quote couldn’t find online

Peach Trifle
1995 Roberto Zeni “Rosa”

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