Food Digest

The Missus, my eldest brother and I went up to north suburban Lake Forest to have a Memorial Day get-together at my aunt and uncle’s house. Two of my cousins, their husbands and their toddlers were there too.

The Missus made deviled eggs, and took the fruits of my labor and assembled a pretty top-notch apple pie for dessert. The main course consisted of grilled chicken, veggie skewers, wild rice and fruit, prepared by the host. It was a nice evening of catching up with family I don’t see too often.

The Missus and I were invited to a friend’s dinner party. It’s something he does regularly — choosing a theme and preparing a multiple-course menu and only including a small number of friends. We were honored to be two of the six people at his grand piano-shaped dinner table. While the attire wasn’t fancy at all — we were all dressed in a more-than-casual kind of way — the food felt straight from an upscale gourmet restaurant.

He did four courses, each with a circle, triangle and square component. The first course, which I spaced on photographing, was cheese wedges (triangle); fruit and crudite (circle); and homemade toasted brown rice, oat and basil seed crackers (square).

Course two was steamed mussels and other stuff I can’t eat due to my seafood allergy. It was presented on a square plate. Luckily, there was a chicken carpaccio dish on field greens with a green salsa, served on a circular plate (pictured). And, for the square, there was a killer homemade oat crostini.

The main course for everyone else was tuna tartare. Mine was a beef tenderloin tartare, over blanched long beans, avocado quinoa cakes, a poached egg and with a red pepper, tomato and porcini sauce.

Dessert was something really special, with each morsel paired with an accompanying alcohol. The circular scoop of peach and rosewater sorbet was paired with a flute of champagne with a slice of strawberry in it. The cube of almond latte blanc mange was paired with a Kentucky bourbon; and a homemade sriracha truffle was paired with a malbec wine. Incredible.

As awesome as the food looked and tasted, it was an even better backdrop to a rollicking conversation that started at about 7 p.m. and didn’t end until we all went home, around 1:15 a.m. 

The Missus is going to be a bridesmaid at her friend’s wedding next month, and the bride and the other maids got together for dinner tonight. I tagged along to give the soon-to-be groom someone to talk to. Apparently he’s not into discussing different types of mascara.

But he is into cooking. For this feast, he roasted a chicken, grilled some hamburgers and asparagus, prepared a heckuva salad and even made brownies for dessert. Everything was awesome. Nice work, dude. You’re making the rest of us married guys look bad.

Of course, I looked bad from the outset at this one. I was asked to bring beer, and accidentally brought Shiner Ruby Redbird, which is beer with grapefruit juice and ginger in it. Seriously, I didn’t realize it was anything other than beer! It was not well-received.