Gourmet Dinner at Home

The bad news is this gourmet dinner was not at my home. The good news is we were invited to a our friend's house so all we had to do was drink, eat and be happy and boy were we ever ecstatic.

We were introduced to a new way to barbecue steaks. New to us but not the Japanese. The steaks were cooked in what's called the Kamado Grill which is made of ceramic and quite beautiful. Reminded me of those hammered silver jewelry. They claim there is no flavor contamination  (metallic taste) and has a lot to do with the smoke which uses Japanese charcoal (expensive) which don't contain additives that alters the taste of the food.

This was a 5 course meal.  Our first course was a Sweet Corn Cappuccino. No coffee or Sandi would have gone into anaphylactic shock.  It was made with fresh corn from the cob with milk froth; hence cappuccino. It was so delicious that I almost asked for a Boba straw to accommodate the corn kernels as you sip.

After the delicious soup, our hostess presented us with Croute Forestiere. For those who don't speak French like myself, it was a baguette with black forest ham, portobello mushrooms in sweet sherry and aged Gruyere. This tasted as good as the picture looks.

The third course was a light Spring Salad with orange supremes, toasted almonds in a balsamic vinaigrette.

Our main entrée was made to order: rare, medium, well.  I had mine medium well and you'll be happy to know it was cooked to perfection and I didn't have to send it back!
The filet of beef was wrapped in applewood smoked bacon. Wow! the flavor was truly incredible. Smoke had a taste but it was unlike any other smoke I have had. That's the only way I can describe the flavor. I even had another piece of filet (small one). This was topped with beurre maître d'hôtel (herb butter).  The Baby potatoes were pan fried in chive butter.

Dessert was made to order Crème Brulee; I ordered mine burnt. She served this with homemade almond cookie dipped in dark Belgian chocolate.  Best Crème Brulee I've had. Very simple and light. The cookie added to the texture; crunchy which was perfect with the silky dessert.

This was  an unforgettable evening of gourmet dining at it's best plus the company which was a lot of fun and entertaining.  This is the type of meal they could have charged a minimum of $125 a plate without alcohol, tax and tip.
Though this was not part of dineLA , it was a great way to end our eating expeditions for the month of July.

The big question is:  When can I make my next reservation?