Oh! What a night!
What a great night it was. I
invited a gentleman I had only met on the internet to come to my home for
dinner. Now, before you start thinking I’m
having some secret affair behind my wife’s back, let me give you some
background.
Weezie and I have been playing in the kitchen for quite a
while now. She has been studying cooking
and flavor pairings. I have been
investigating modern techniques and amuse bouché ideas. Cooking together has, before last Sunday,
been strained and difficult. Years ago,
Weezie didn’t even want me within the kitchen when she made food. Over time, it was okay if I stayed in my station,
but heaven forbid I even look at a pot of hers, or worse yet, give one a
stir. We have progressed since then and
got to the point where we could walk amongst each other and I could even help
her when she asked for a specific task.
Last Sunday, we achieved a new level.
Not only did we work on the same dishes at the same time, no
instructions were needed. We blew it on
only one task (pan roasting the pecans), but instead of getting upset that the
other fell down on the job, we simply made another batch, taking turns to
stir/toss them while we both worked on the various tasks that distracted us
during the first batch. I can honestly
say, this is the first time (and likely the tone of the future) we worked
together in the kitchen like a well oiled machine. It was an exhilarating experience.
More than a year ago, I began posting my food experiments on
KeepRecipes. When I began posting
recipes there, I noticed Eric Gower was doing the same. I had met Eric as a poster on some sites
pertaining to matcha (Japanese tea) and had found myself talking with him
through various posts. In a recent
conversation, Eric commented to some tea post about how he loves crema on his
tea. I replied to the same post how I
like the esthetic beauty of having only a little foam around the edges and an
island of foam in the middle of the tea.
Eric wanted to see how I could create it and asked me for a
demonstration.
I agreed to meet him in the city the following
Thursday. As the day approached, Eric’s
work pulled him away and we had to reschedule.
I suggested he come over to my house for the demonstration, and to make
the trip worth his while, we would feed him dinner. The date was set for last Sunday: the day
after Weezie and I had made arrangements to have another friend over for dinner
and games.
Weezie was full of questions. What does he like to eat? Who is he? Does he know I’m making vegan
foods? I told her about my associations
with Eric and told her a few things about him.
Eric Gower is a food columnist for the Chronicle and writes cookbooks. He also gives cooking demonstrations. I figured I could spare Weezie’s fears by not
telling her Eric gives private cooking lessons and has been a judge on Iron
Chef America. Perhaps, I should have
told her even less.
The evening started around six. Eric came over with a bottle of wine he had
bottled down in Solvang. We sat around
the kitchen for a few minutes while the last touches of dinner were being
done. I was pleasantly surprised to hear
Eric’s joy when he discovered I have a Kamado in my backyard.
I know of only one other person with a Kamodo. We sat down for dinner, opening his wine, and
discovered how nicely it paired with the food we had prepared. (Photo posted on Tonight’s Dinner for Creole Crusted Tempeh over Pecan Dirty Rice & Braised Kale, Mushroom Sauce
and Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Red Bell Pepper Sauce) I made watermelon two ways for dessert: fizzy
and compressed. Weezie pulled out some
of the port we had bottled a month or so ago.
Watching Eric’s eyes glow when he experienced the watermelon told me we
hit a homerun with both dinner and dessert.
I was elated.
After dinner, we pulled out a few different chocolates, then retired
to the kitchen to talk about food and matcha.
I showed Eric how I made the compressed watermelon (something Eric
called toro sushi). We tasted each step
of the process. Eric then showed Weezie
and me a better way to handle a knife (even more choked up than what I do).
Eric brought his three teas for us to try. He then made all three in his breakaway
style. All three were delicious. Blend 94 is bold and outspoken. It pairs well with strong and loud flavors. It is not as complex as the other two teas,
giving, instead, a vibrant matcha flavor and color. Blend 94, like some high percentage
chocolates, has a very slight dusty mouth feel.
Blend 97 lacks the powdery feel of Blend 94, and makes up
for it with its well balanced collection of flavors. Blend 97 rolls smoothly around the mouth,
imparting a clean, slightly sweet, fresh taste.
Unlike Blend 94, I would not consider using Blend 97 as a food ingredient. It pairs very well with dried apricots and dry-roasted
almonds.
Blend 100 is a grand masterpiece. Smooth, sweet, fresh, the complexity is mind
blowing. When Eric made it breakaway
style, the color was so vibrant it glows.
I cannot begin to describe on this blog.
From the first sight, to the aroma, mouth feel, initial taste, flavor,
finish, this tea tantalizes the mind with so much to enjoy that each cup can be
a different, equally magnificent, experience.
This is my type of tea. It is not
boisterous and demanding. Instead, it
fills in the details like a Robert Silver’s photomosaic.
After tasting the three teas breakaway style, I made Eric some
thick tea using the koyamaen tea I normally drink.
It turns out that Eric had never had thick tea before. I think I found a convert. He was so delighted with the experience, we
made another bowl using the Blend 100.
(If Blend 100 is a masterpiece done breakaway style, it is even more
impressive as thick tea.) As koicha
(thick tea of the consistency of warm honey), it is not as gelatinous as
koyamaen tea. Instead, it has more of a
creamy pudding mouth feel. It is so
tantalizing as koicha, I’ve already made it for myself again and will be taking
it to my tea teacher this Thursday for him to enjoy.
I would like to say the evening ended happily just before
midnight (with at least one more bowl of koicha) when Eric left, but it didn’t end. Weezie and I went to bed that night and slept
an exhausted, but happy night away. We
woke up and found ourselves reliving the joy of the day, unable to stop talking about how wonderful the
evening went. Even the walk around the neighborhood, with all the spring flowers, could not distract us from the experience. We had such a wonderful
time with Eric, we couldn’t come down from the emotional high until sometime
Tuesday afternoon. Heck, it’s Wednesday, and I’m still smiling happily from the entire weekend. Oh, what a night.
