fullygoldy: Yellow Roses (Fresh Veg)
fullygoldy ([personal profile] fullygoldy) wrote2006-09-05 04:04 pm
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Eno Vino Again

Labor Day seemed like a good day to go out to dinner, but for some reason, it seems all the nice restaurants downtown were closed. I was pretty surprised by that, so no Cocoliquot for us again. We had tried going there on a Sunday, and no dice, so I thought Monday would work. Silly me. After determining that nothing we were interested in was open downtown, we decided to try Eno Vino. The down side was driving all the way to the west side, but the up side was Biaggi’s is in the same shopping center, so hopefully one of them would be open. Turned out both were open, but we went with our favorite.
 
Eno Vino has added some outdoor seating, but we decided to go inside anyway. There were only a handful of occupied tables, so we ended up with a nice spot that had a view of the end of the open kitchen, not that we were actually looking that way. We were far too interested in our menus and our plates!
 
First up, Serenity, an “unoaked” Chardonnay from Santa Barbara for me, and a French Chardonnay for [profile] barley52. We both enjoyed our choices. I could actually taste where the oak would have been, and the wine was crisp, tart and bright without it. We paired these glasses first with Crab and Cabbage Spring Rolls in a sweet chili sauce, plus a soy-ginger dipping sauce. Then we had Chilean Sea Bass and Seared Dive Scallops which were dressed with a basil butter and tomato jam. YUM. We’ve had this dish before, and it’s still amazing.  The thing to remember with Eno Vino is that the plates are smallish for an entree, but just right for sharing with one or two others, when ordering multiple plates.
 
Moving onto the red portion of the wine menu, I chose a Malbec from Argentina. It was bright, deep and layered with stone fruits. It had a huge nose. Very lovely. [profile] barley52 chose another French wine, a Cotes du Rhone which also had a big nose, but was more of apiece. The funny thing was, I thought these two wines represented opposite sides of the same coin. B thought his was akin to a lager – all smooth flavor, the layers blended and aged into one taste, while mine was more like an ale with the complex layers being preserved. We each liked our choice so much we ordered a second glass.  And of course neither of us can remember the actual winery!  We paired the first glasses with the Roast Pheasant and Truffled Risotto. There was a sauce there too, and the plate was drizzled with truffle oil. Scrumptious! The second glasses accompanied the Petite Filet with Goat Cheese Potato Pancakes (silver dollar-sized) and Beurre Rouge (Butter sauce made with red wine). MMMMMM. We’ve had this dish before also, and it was still quite excellent.
 
We decided to forego the dessert tray, and opted to finish up with Sandeman’s 20 yr Tawny Port. Delightful.
 
Throughout the meal, in addition to discussing our wonderful food and wines, we were having a running conversation about an imaginary restaurant. We were trying to decide what all would be on the menu for a tapas restaurant with a southern gourmet theme in our fine town. Shrimp grits, sweet tea, hoppin’ john & fancy greens, fried okra, cauliflower and green tomatoes, southern-fried chicken wings, baked macaroni with some insanely delicious cheese instead of regular cheddar, cornbread like cake, mile-high biscuits, fried catfish, jambalaya, gumbo, low-country boil, crawfish, she-crab soup, pecan pie, pralines, peach ice cream, pound cake, and, and, and… The lunch menu would be the classic “meat & three” whereupon we started naming every ‘veggie’ side we could think of, and mashed potatoes with horseradish, garlic, onions, ramps, sour cream – a different flavor every day. Each day would also feature a different meat – pork chops, fried chicken, meatloaf, ham steak…. Our mouths were watering over this imaginary menu when we had all kinds of fabulousness on the plates before us. I suspect the people on the other side of the divider wall thought we were losing our minds. I kinda wonder about that myself sometimes.
 

We were done fairly early, so we stopped in next door to speak to the baker at Panera. He’s an old work-buddy of B’s and they hadn’t seen each other in months. It was a nice long chat and we still were home well before 10. I think I would have slept like the dead if it weren’t for the big black dog having his own insomnia. His trips up and down the stairs, plus his jangling dog tags woke me up at 2:45 and that was pretty much it for me. I think I managed a 30 minute stretch just before 0500, but then I got up and showered because the kids were going to start stirring at 0530 for the first day of school. Can you believe their bus comes at 6:35, when their school is only a 10 minute drive from the house?!

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