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Robuchon

Today Linda and I explored the area around City Center, including several hotels owned by MGM: The Bellagio, Aria and Monte Carlo. These are connected by a tram, along with the Crystals mall. We had a good lunch of tapas at Julian Serrano in the Aria. The ceviche was the highlight, and a glass of Albarino the perfect accompaniment.

The rest of our Wine Syndicate group had arrived by afternoon, and at 7pm eight of us (Ron, Bev, John, Debbie, Dick, Priscilla, Linda and I) went to see Love at the Mirage.

Let me preface this by saying I’m not a big fan of Cirque du Soleil shows. I’ve seen six of them, and with the exception of Ka, I’ve always felt that they were much sound and fury, signifying nothing. Still, I was surprised how much Linda and I hated this show.

First, the good: The music is superb. Every sound (except a new string part written by George Martin for While My Guitar Gently Weeps) is from the original 1960s Beatles tapes, but Martin and his son have remixed bits and pieces to create a sound collage that transcends the originals. I was very familiar with the CD, but the show’s sound is even better, and contains additional material.

Also terrific is the technology. The moving stage floors, set pieces, scrims, and super-accurate projections thereon are extremely impressive. And an effect involving an audience-covering sheet is quite magical.

But no amount of confetti, streamers, and gimmicks can save this show from utter meaninglessness. Except for a few rare moments when the mindless action on the stage seemed to have some relationship to the songs (A Day In The Life, for example) the show has no story and no emotional tug whatsoever. It’s clear, too that the designers knew they were in trouble, and attempted to fix it by piling on more and more.

It’s almost comical the way the quality of the show varies in inverse proportion to the number of people on stage. One person was usually compelling, two a bit diluted, three confusing, and four a muddle. Now imagine fifteen, and you have an unfocused mess. What a missed opportunity, where the sum of the parts is not only less than the individual values, it totaled approximately zero.

The audience—especially the drunks, of whom there were many—loved it, of course. Bread and circuses.

After the show we were picked up by one of the MGM’s gold limos for our ride to dinner. There were supposed to be two limos, but due to a screw up there was one, so the ride involved some lap dancing, which was entertaining.

The limo discharged us in the courtyard of the mansion at MGM, which is a sprawling complex devoted to high rollers. The walk through this area to the restaurant was a great peek into how the unimaginably rich and stupid live.

The private room at Joel Robuchon was beautiful, and the perfect size for the eight of us.

I had arranged for a prix fixe ala carte menu, which allowed us to each select our appetizer, two main courses and dessert. The rest of the courses were set. This worked out well, because it allowed us to try some different things, whilst avoiding some weird dishes on the 16 course tasting menu. The price of the meal, at $230 per person, was steep but probably reasonable for the quality of the food. The wine list, while extensive, was insanely overpriced, but Ron did a wonderful job of finding nice selections on something less than NASA’s budget.

My meal consisted of:

  • Amuse bouche – a citrus and foam combination that was quite refreshing
  • Foie gras and violet artichoke salad – delicious and not too heavy, the foie gras was a thin pate
  • Chestnut soup – the smoked bacon foam was a highlight
  • Sea bass with lemon grass – great lemony flavor, but the dish didn’t completely hang together for my taste
  • Wagu rib eye with wasabi spinach – a stunning course, with a wonderful assortment of tastes, and intensely flavored beef that melted in your mouth like butter. Easily the best course.
  • Chocolate, coffee ice cream, puffed rice – I traded this with Debbie for banana and passion fruit which I preferred, although I was in the minority on that one.
  • Assorted mignardises

The wines:

  • Vintage Champagne – best wine of the evening, a toasty elegant starter
  • 2007 Chassagne Montrachet – a pleasant, citrusy white Burgundy that accompanied the seafood perfectly
  • 1998 Nuit St. Georges – great earthy nose with lots of Burgundian promise; light palate, though
  • 2008 Penner Ash Pinot Noir – the nose eventually opened up a bit, but not as good as other vintages I’ve had of this. Thin palate of light sweet cherries
  • 1989 Ch. Destieux St. Emilion – Surprisingly soft for the year, this was one of the better buys on the list
  • 2009 Mollydooker Blue-Eyed Boy – as always a knock out, great with the cheese and dessert
  • 1985 Laberdolive Bas-Armagnac – a spectacularly complex spirit, poured by the glass, and a steal at $28. I need to find some of this.

Dinner with the wines, ten bottles of water, coffees, various fees and gratuities came to slightly over $1000 a couple. Worth it? Hard to say, as I’ve had more spectacular meals for less. On the other hand, the setting was magical, and it was a great way to kick off the trip. It will be interesting to compare it to the next-door sister restaurant, l’Atelier, on Friday.

Vdara

Today is the first day of our Wine Syndicate getaway to Las Vegas. We took advantage of our membership miles to fly first class on Delta through Atlanta. It took most of the day, but it was a pleasant flight, with a couple hours spent in two Crown Rooms, and some spectacular views of the Grand Canyon on the way.

I decided to try the new Vdara Hotel at City Center because it offers rooms with kitchens and enough space to have wine get-togethers. Upon check-in the woman at the front desk kindly upgraded us to a penthouse on the top floor (56) overlooking the Bellagio fountain! We have a kitchen, dining area for six, guest bath, and even a laundry room. This must be close to the best room in the hotel. Lucky!

We only had an hour or so before heading to The Monte Carlo for dinner at Alain Ducasse’s Mix.

The restaurant has a contemporary European design. It on the 64th floor of THE hotel at The Monte Carlo. Some of the bar space and dining area is outdoors, which is fairly unique.

The service was amazing. It’s one of those places where things just disappear from the table when you’re done. We timed it, and wine glasses were leaving seconds after we finished with them.

Dinner was excellent. We had two different tasting menus. It’s nice that not everyone at the table has to order the same tasting menu. Highlights were the guacamole served with Linda’s tuna, the foie gras, black truffles and mashed potatoes served with her beef, her curry lobster, the passion fruit, pineapple juice and cocoanut foam cocktail served as a pre-dessert, and her baba rum, which was served as a kit with a delicious Montecristo 10 year rum that was very floral. Yes, she ordered the better tasting menu! The wine pairings were a deal, too, since the wines by the bottle were very steep. The pairing was a bargain, and hers even included a glass of 2005 Quintessa that was superb.

When we returned to our room for a much needed sleep, this was the view:

Rachael Sage

Martin and I went to see Rachael Sage, one of my favorite performers. It was no small feat finding this concert, which was inexplicably part of the monthly Orlando Folk Music meeting. It was originally advertised as being at a diner in Osteen (wherever that is) and then at Lieu Gardens, but it turned out to be at a private home on Lake Ivanhoe. The home featured an upstairs art gallery which proved to be a good performance space. About thirty people showed up, which was basically a full house. As far as I could tell, three of us knew who Rachael Sage was (including Martin, who didn’t know two days ago). The rest seemed to be the regular folk music society members, who, surprisingly, seemed to mostly be retirees.

The afternoon began with a guitar duo who played mediocre folk/bluegrass/blues for a half hour. I presume this is the usual fare for this club. Then Rachael Sage came on, solo, and played piano and sang for two 45 minute sets. I was concerned that her music–which is certainly not folk, but rather complex contemporary alternative–would not be well-received, but the crowd was very enthusiastic. She has a great personality, and shared lots of stories about herself and the songs, and didn’t take things too seriously, interspersing her lyrics with comments to the audience, and also the owners’ dog, who kept strolling through!

Her set list was a dream. Essentially she played my entire five-star Rachel Sage playlist, drawing upon, as near as I could tell, all nine of her albums. At intermission I asked for my favorite, Jane’s Demitri, and she noodled around with it, but couldn’t quite remember the details, but she told my that next time, if I posted the request to Facebook, she’d practice it in advance. Wow.

This was a wonderful concert, and I felt guilty that it only cost $12, and that I already own all nine of her CDs, so couldn’t buy anything.

Mystery Fruit

The ugly tree in the backyard has pretty flowers on it. Linda planted this cutting a few years ago, with the promise that each branch would grow a different kind of fruit. Mostly it grows dead twigs. But this branch has produced a couple of pieces of fruit in the past, plums I think. Usually the squirrel sneaks into the screen room and runs off with them.

City Fire Oven and Bar

Tonight Linda an I went to a pre-opening test run of a new restaurant by the family that created Pebbles, Harvey’s Bistro and Manuel’s. For a first night, things ran remarkably smoothly. It was fun to try some of the dishes we used to love at Pebbles, and we had a chance to provide some detailed feedback to the owner, who provided us with a tour. The decor is nice, with romantic lighting, 1890’s light fixtures and photos, and an inviting looking bar. Nothing about the service or the food would have tipped us off that this was their first night. It looks like a successful concept, and we wish them well for their opening this Monday.

Crepes

Linda fixed crepes tonight, what a creative use of frozen leftovers! Spinach Souffle, curry chicken, and ratatouille. Accompanied by two different Adobe Road zinfandels that happened to arrive today, and a BV chardonnay.

Wine Competition

This was my 20th year judging wines at the Florida State Fair International Wine Competition. There were about 1269 wines from 34 different states, with 25% coming from California.

The event begins Wednesday evening, at the judges’ dinner, when we taste last year’s double gold medal winners. Then, on Thursday and Friday, the 24 judges form eight panels that score about 100 wines each day. This year, for dinner on Thursday, John Henline and I tried someplace new, Tokai Sushi, that was nearby, quite good, and reasonably priced.

There’s also time to see a bit of the fair, which is a strange mix of livestock, competitions ranging  from horticulture to dancing, flea market, and carnie midway. These miniature cows are used as a tax dodge, to achieve agricultural zoning of two head of cattle per acre without requiring much food. They don’t have T-bones, just Teeny-bones.

Saturday is the Best of Show tasting, when the best double gold medal winners are all entered into a popularity contest. It takes a lot of glasses!

This year’s winners in the red and white categories were both from California wineries: Moonstone and Ventana.

Of course, no trip to Tampa is complete with a visit to Berns, and this year I managed two. On Friday night I went with John, Al, and Keith, and we tried ’64 Vosnee-Romanee, ’64 Cote-Rotie, ’73 Inglenook Charbono, ’74 Inglenook Petite Sirah, and ’76 Mondavi Pinot Noir.

On Saturday I met up with Linda and Martin to see Billy Elliot at a matinee. This was my fifth time seeing that show, three times in London and once in Chicago. It’s been interesting to watch it gradually transform itself for American audiences, with minor changes here and there to make it more understandable. An excellent show, and very well received by the audience. I couldn’t help reflect on the absence of children in the audience, even though the cast is mostly children. This was quite different from London, but here the show’s four letter vocabulary is evidently a bit too much for most parents.

After the show Linda, Martin and I went to Berns, where we enjoyed the best wine of the week, a 1959 Chambolle-Musigny, along with a 1980 Cote-Rotie and a 1982 Tanbark Zin(!) recommended by our waiter. By chance I had the same table and waiter both nights, and also by chance Ron and Bev were there both nights, in another room. The Zin made an interesting blind challenge when I sent a glass to Ron, and he passed with flying colors.

West Side Story

The touring production of West Side Story visited Orlando this week, and Linda and I saw it on our season ticket subscription to Broadway Across America. Of all the hundreds of musicals we’ve seen, it’s curious that neither of us had ever seen this show onstage. Of course, we’ve seen the movie, but the show’s complex orchestral score must be beyond the talents of regional theaters, so we had to wait for this revival.

Surely no other fifty-year-old musical stands up as well as this one. Even today the orchestration is fresh, cutting edge, and unlike anything else. And the choreography is simply the best we’ve seen, easily outdoing other famous “dance” musicals such as Oklahoma. The extremely young troupe put incredible energy into each number, and it was easy to believe they were two teen gangs; they were!

The voices in this show were good, particularly Michelle Aravena as Anita. (We saw her on Broadway in 2006 in A Chorus Line.) Ali Ewoldt as Maria was also good. Sadly, the lead for Tony was sick, and his understudy wasn’t at the level of the other performers; he seemed more like he belonged in a (good) school production of the show.

Amazingly, the Bob Carr acoustics failed to defeat the sound engineer, perhaps because the levels were lower than most shows. As a result, the orchestra sounded great. Most of the lyrics were also clear, although America was inexplicably unintelligible.

This show mixes fairly extensive Spanish dialogue and lyrics with English, which works great and adds to the believability of the antagonistic relationship between the Sharks and Jets. Because the plot is conveyed through the action, no translation is needed. An excellent show.

Around the World in 180 Minutes

Everglades Restaurant at the Rosen Centre Hotel hosts a food and wine event about five times each year. We particularly enjoy these events because of their fun and intimate nature, the opportunity to meet interesting people at our table, and their interesting themes. They’re also a good deal, with five course and five generous servings of interesting wines for $65. For my birthday, Linda, Martin and I attended this month’s event, called “Around the World in 180 Minutes.” It was themed like an airplane trip, right down to the boarding passes we were issued to enter:

As always, the food was terrific, the presentations about the wines were kept short and to the point, and a good time was had by all. My favorite course was the salad, which combined incredibly tasty tomatoes with a wonderful vinaigrette that matched the Spanish Albarino beautifully.

The soup course was also impressive, really a bowl of lobster tail and other fish and shellfish with an almost marinara-thick sauce. The desert was also delicious, and the tart mango slices worked beautifully with the Lexia (muscat).

The next event is March 25th, and every course will contain chocolate!

Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow rarely leaves Vegas these days, but last night he kicked off a new tour at the Amway Center in Orlando. This is the second concert I’ve seen there, and the jury is still out on the acoustics, but Barry’s sound man definitely didn’t have a handle on it. I’ve never heard so much feedback in a major concert production. Since this was the first stop on the tour, hopefully they’ll get it straightened out by the next show.

But Barry did a great job. We saw him thirty years ago at the Greek Theatre in LA, and he still has the voice and puts on a great show, even in the face of adversity, which the sound mix certainly created.

My favorite moments were the ballads, but I also really enjoyed seeing four guys play one piano at the same time!

Some excerpts from the Sentinel’s unusually on-target review:

Although Manilow will tell you that the road show doesn’t aim to copy the glitzy production of his Vegas act, there was a decent amount of that showroom pop Thursday at Amway Center, especially in the oversized opening moments and the thunderous, confetti-adorned finale.

The orchestra, about 70 members strong, looked to be having a blast, waving instruments in the air in the opening moments to a pounding drumbeat…

The sound mix was a blaring, muddled mess, especially in the monster crescendos … in the early going. Equally frustrating, Manilow’s voice almost disappeared when he dipped into the lower register in the understated moments…

And the man was working the room. He prowled the stage energetically, if awkwardly, belting out songs to the back row with crazy arm gestures that might have been showbiz semaphore decipherable only to veteran casino patrons…

If Manilow likes things big, it’s not because he can’t do a ballad. One of the night’s most captivating moments also was among the most delicate. Seated on a stool, the singer tenderly offered “When October Goes,” a song that he adapted from unfinished lyrics by the iconic Johnny Mercer.

Of course, Manilow himself has no shortage of songs…

“You didn’t think we’d let you go home without doing this one,” he said, launching into the obligatory “Copacabana.” Like most everything he does, it was over the top.

Ratatouille

The dish, not the movie.

Sauté zucchini in organic garlic and grapseed oil spray.
Add onions, variety of bell, red and yellow peppers, green onions, fire roasted diced tomatoes, dash of hot sauce, seasoning salt, fresh terragon. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Pretty tasty, and it freezes.

Tilapia with Caramelized Apples

This was a weird idea that turned out well.

Ingredients:

Tilapia filet
Apple, sliced
Onion, chopped
Cup of white wine
Splash of milk
Seasoning salt
Grapeseed oil spray

Caramelize the apples and onions, add white wine and milk, reduce, set aside. Sauté the Tilapia. Dump the apples and onions on top.

Tasty!

Rock of Ages more like Gravel

For a decade we held season tickets to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, which hosted some of the best productions in the Southeast, but then they terminated their affiliation with Broadway Across America, and stopped getting the interesting touring companies. So, for the past two years, we’ve subscribed to the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center in Orlando, a theater with worse acoustics than the average 7-Eleven restroom.

Once again last night, the Bob Carr soundly defeated the audio system (pun intended). But the touring show Rock of Ages has far worse problems than audio. With the exception of the female lead, this was the most untalented cast I’ve ever heard in a national touring company. And her ability to sing and act simply made everyone else look even worse. Honestly, I’ve seen many high school casts better than this one. As the Orlando Sentinel critic noted, we couldn’t tell if they were paying homage to the songs, or parodying them.

The song choices themselves were good, and the on-stage musicians played them fine. But the songs have so little relationship to the show that, even if they had been well sung, they could have provided no emotional tug.

Like In The Heights, the show attracts non-theatregoers. The misanthropes next to me appeared to have never been to a cultural event, talking through the show and occasionally shouting at the players.

While some in the audience did laugh at the bits of dialogue they could understand, it had the feeling of nervous laughter, since the book writer seems to have simply thrown in every idea that came to him (again quoting from the Sentinel) with an emphasis on middle school references to sexual anatomy.

The best thing about the show was the second act, because we were at home, asleep.

Christmas 2010

We had a lovely Christmas, leisurely opening our packages all day.  The best gifts were homemade. Dani wrapped up a LOST-themed Dharma pillow in DHARMA “Standard Wrapping Paper” that she made herself, and she also gave us a world map she framed herself and inserted push pins into, marking 100 places we’ve traveled to. We had our traditional breakfast burritos for lunch, and then Martin and Nicole came over for Christmas dinner.

Christmas Eve at Victoria & Albert’s

Christmas Eve we went to Disney’s Grand Floridian for our traditional dinner at Victoria & Albert’s. We’ve gone every year for more than a decade. Here, Dani poses in the lobby in front of the jazz band. The enormous gingerbread house is on the left. Downstairs there was a long line to great Mickey and Minnie in their Victorian Christmas garb.

Jean Pierre’s Bistro

For some time I’d been wanting to try Jean Pierre’s Bistro, a French bistro and bakery in Water Tower Place, the cute shopping village in front of Disney’s Celebration. Orlando doesn’t really have any true French bistros, with the possible exception of  Chefs de France at Epcot, which isn’t exactly convenient—or cheap.

I had some doubts when we arrived at Jean Pierre’s for dinner, because the place was deserted, and quite brightly lit, more like what you’d expect from a bakery or a sandwich shop—both of which it is, during the daytime. So it wasn’t exactly the ambiance I was hoping for from an evening bistro. But the food was everything I’d hoped for.

We started with the house made paté, a cheese plate, smoked salmon, and a salad with traditional French vinaigrette. All were excellent, especially the pate (really a terrine), which was fresh, flavorful, and had a wonderful mixture of spices on the outside. We could have used some soft, stinky cheeses, but I understand why American tastes run to firmer, less fragrant ones, and the half dozen choices were all very flavorful. The salmon was fresh and very smokey, with just the right accompaniments, and the salad was perfect, just like in Paris.

Our main courses were Beef Bourguignon and Chicken in a mushroom and madeira sauce. Both sauces were excellent, and each was accompanied by a rich, creamy dish of scalloped potatoes. A particular highlight was the fresh baked French baguette, which was plentiful and very authentic. As parting gifts the owner bestowed upon us glasses of Muscat and a fresh loaf of this wonderful bread to take with us.

I was impressed that the owner, with little assistance, could turn out such a diverse offering in so little time; and there were at least twenty other dishes we could have chosen. Prices are very reasonable, and the wine list has a couple of nice choices at good prices. It’s too bad his location isn’t higher profile, and that his website is fairly poor, because this is just the sort of French bistro Orlando needs.

Silvertone Model 4587A Tuning Indicator

Radio dial with three bands and user-installed station identifiers around the edge.

My friend Jim Carstensen restores old radios as a hobby. His latest project is one that belonged to his father-in-law’s father. It was made by Sears in the 1930s. He hasn’t yet begun restoring the beautiful wood console, but he has the internals nearly finished, and I was fascinated by his description of one particularly “high tech” feature. The dial of the radio includes lighted placards to indicate the call letters of favorite stations. The call letters were inserted by the user, under clips around the dial.  As the dial is turned, it rotates an arm that presses a switch against a toothed wheel. by bending up metal tabs along this wheel, the user selects locations that turn on a lightbulb to illuminate the call sign. It’s the analog precursor to digital tuning!

Bending up the tabs on top of the toothed wheel causes the station identifier to light.

This degree of user customization is particularly impressive when you consider there are many spots in this chassis that run at 300 volts!

Alcorn McBride Christmas Party 2010

We had a great time at the Alcorn McBride Christmas party last night. This year we hired Puff ‘n Stuff to cater the event, and they did a great job. It was nice to have more time to spend with our friends, and to have the house all put back in order at the end of the evening.  My favorite foods were the cheddar and bacon dip, poached salmon, beef empanadas and the mashed potato bar.

We poured a half dozen sparking wines, of which I thought the best were the Piper Heidsieck Brute Champagne, Iron Horse Fairytale Cuvee (the only non-Champagne entrant) and the Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial. The two nectares from Moet & Chandon were too sweet for me.

All of the red wines poured were made by Sparky Marquis from Shiraz, but they were all different. In descending order of my ratings: 2003 Henry’s Drive Reserve Shiraz, 2002 Marquis Philips 9, 2009 Mollydooker Blue Eyed Boy, 2009 Mollydooker The Boxer. Perhaps not coincidentally, that’s also descending order of price!

We were very lucky with the weather. After two weeks of very cold (for Orlando) weather, with some nights dropping into the 20s, Friday was in the mid 70s, and the evening was warm enough to sit outside until after 10pm. The next morning we woke up to rain, so our timing was perfect!

Gingerbread House

Dani’s annual tradition of making a gingerbread house got a bit more complicated this year, as she baked the gingerbread herself. We were all a bit skeptical of whether it would hold together for final assembly, but we shouldn’t have doubted. What a lovely job of decorating it!

Thanksgiving in LA

We’re spending Thanksgiving week in Los Angeles with Linda’s mom. It’s given us an opportunity to catch up, since we haven’t seen her in two years. Dani flew in from Chicago on Wednesday, and we met her at LAX, where the theme building has been refurbished and has some really cool lighting.

The week is affording us an opportunity to visit some favorite restaurants: El Cholo, Smoke House (world’s best garlic bread), Stan’s Corner Donuts (world’s best donuts), Tommy’s (world’s best chili burgers) and Duke’s (world’s best, um, nothing).

And to try some new ones: La Cachette Bistro, Geoffrey’s, and Water Grill.

For Thanksgiving we had dinner at Craft with Marjorie, Linda’s cousins, Adele and Vicki, Vicki’s daughter and son Leslie and Matt, and Matt’s wife Lauren. It was really a good place for a holiday dinner, because they had lots of large tables, and the food is always served family style. Everything was delicious, especially the veggies, mushrooms, pureed squash and bread stuffing. Dani’s and my favorite dish was the baby brussels sprouts(!) There were also lots of desserts, interesting ice creams (sour cream, a favorite flavor), and many leftovers to take home. We ordered a wonderfully creamy Delamotte Champagne off the list, and we brought a buttery 2006 Ramey Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay, and a somewhat lightweight 2005 P. Dubreuil-Fontaine Corton Perrieres Burgundy that we’d obtained the day before at Moe’s Fine Wines.

Elton John

Elton John has devoted this year to resurrecting the career of Leon Russell, his early inspiration. At Daytona Beach last night Sir Elton even came out first to introduce Leon’s half hour set. Leon’s long white hair and beard make him look like Santa Clause wearing a white cowboy hat. He’s frail, and shuffles onstage with the help of a cane, but his piano playing is undiminished, and his style is so similar to Elton’s that it’s often hard to tell who is playing.

Leon’s opening set ran 30 minutes, and included only two songs we knew, Tightrope and Song For You. Then he took a break and Elton took the stage, perking things up with Saturday Night’s All Right For Fighting, and a half hour of other hits.

The center piece of the concert saw Leon return and the duo plus large backing band played nearly all of their new album, Union. Listening to the album on the way to Dayton, Linda and I found it slow and somber, but at the concert they performed a complex, uptempo version that was better. As Elton noted, “It’s hard to listen to new music,” but the crowd was enthusiastic. Elton was clearly delighted that the two of them had an album at number five, their first top ten “in decades.” The best song is probably Shilo. The final number, a gospel solo by Leon, is a song he wrote to thank Elton for being his “angel.”

The album complete, Leon headed for bed, and Elton played his hits for more than an hour. The audience was on its (overweight, middle aged) feet after every song. For me the highlight is always his improvised introduction to Take Me To The Pilot. If you haven’t experienced his phenomenal piano improvisations, check this out on youtube.

Well past the three hour mark, Elton returned for an encore of signing autographs and finished where he began his career, with a heartfelt Your Song, dedicated to the audience.

As we filtered into the parking lot we reflected on how nice it was to see a concert by someone who clearly wanted to be there, sharing his music with the audience, completely the opposite of our experience with The Eagles.

This concert was extraordinarily loud. Even with earplugs I’m still a bit deaf in one ear. I feel sorry for those who didn’t have them. It’s a shame they insist on cranking the music so loud, because it creates echoes in the arena. The sound was much better on the softer numbers.

Before the show we had dinner at The Cellar, a favorite restaurant in Daytona Beach. It’s in the basement of Warren G. Harding’s home. No kidding.

Victoria and Albert’s Chef’s Table

The Chef's Table

Last night we enjoyed a wonderful evening at Victoria and Albert’s Chef’s Table with Ron and Bev and some new friends, Keith and Parlo Edwards and Adam and Gigi Chilvers.

Chef Scott Hunnell

Chef Scott Hunnel outdid himself with the ten course tasting menu, incorporating our favorite salmon from the Victoria Room menu, and even coming up with some foie gras, which is no longer available at Disney.

Enjoying the Foie Gras

The most spectacular presentation is also my favorite course, the chilled curried lamb, which is served over dry ice that engulfs the table in fog.

Maitre d'Hotel Israel Perez with the lineup

Israel Perez was his usual charming self as our host, and Brian Koziol, a master sommelier, volunteered to open and pour our wines.

Burgundy and Bordeaux from '47, '53 and '55

Ron asked me to bring two old Bordeaux and two old Burgundies, and combined with his and the other guest’s wines, we ended up with twenty rather amazing selections, served—more or less—in pairs to accompany the courses.

The Wines

Champagne Flight

75 Dom Perignon late released Ron 96 points

Vanilla Creme brûlée, caramelized peach compote, limestone, excellent match with the entire amuse bouche

88 Krug 90 points

Green apple, candy, vanilla, seemed very awkward after the Dom

White flight

96 Haut Brion Blanc  Ron 98 points

Chalk, lemon, burnt sugar, candle wax, amazing white, as always; I nursed this for four hours

07 Kistler Vine Hill     Adam 95 points

Toast, smoke, Creme brûlée, considering it was poured next to Haut Brion Blanc, this really showed amazingly well; excellent wine

04 Louis Latour Corton Chalemagne  Keith 90 points

Very pronounced nose like that white powder on “Double Bubble” bubble gum(!),  seyval-like aromas

Burgundy Flight 1

1947 Thorin Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru   Steve 96 points

Big fruit, iron, pine, perfect with curried lamb; one of those magic bottles

1947 Remoissenet Chambertin Clos de Beze Grand Cru    Ron 98 points

Youthful, smoke, milk, drawn butter, minerals, salt, mustard, sweet mint, mushrooms, bacon; initially not as interesting as the Thorin, but incredibly youthful, it evolved for four hours, becoming the red wine of the night

Burgundy Flight 2

1955 Louis Latour Chambertin Grand Cru    Steve 96 points

Very chewy classic chambertin, cherries, menthol, vanilla; a contender for red wine of the night. I got the last pour of every wine, so mine was a bit muddy, since we don’t decant these old wines.

1955 Louis Latour Corton Grancey Grand Cru   Ron 83 points

Bubble gum, wax, bowl of melted butter; this was a really weird wine

Bordeaux Flight 1

1953 Chateau Latour    Ron 93 points

Classic latour, dust, green beans, graphite, walnuts, meat; a great wine, but Burgundy is a tough act to follow

1955 Chateau Latour   Steve no score (defective)

Sweet, fruity, big, cat box, occasionally quite stinky; something wrong with this bottle, for sure

Bordeaux Flight 2

1953 Chateau Margaux RP 98   Ron 92 points

Floral, feminine, fatty, hazlenut; classic Margaux

1962 Chateau Margaux    Steve   no score (corked)

Corky, Minty, feminine, this bottle had a low fill, perhaps the result of the bad cork. I was a bit disgusted that I had two out of four bottles defective, but at least we had lots of other wine, and fortunately the defective ones weren’t the Burgundies!

California Flight

2007 Hundred Acre Ark Vyd    Adam 95 points

Vanilla, mint chocolate, soft, balanced, port like, peppery, syrupy in a good way; may not age but a really pleasant drink right now

2007 Colgin IX Propretary Estate  RP 100 Adam 97 points

Bell pepper, cab franc, merlot, earthy, structured better than the Hundred Acre, so it may age, although I liked the Hundred Acre better

Rhone Flight

1992 Guigal La Landonne   Keith 90 points

Earthy, chalky, tight

1995  Beaucastel Hommage du Jacques Perrin    Keith 94 points

Opulent, chalk, meaty, good acid, classic Rhone

Dessert Flight

2001 Chateau Climens RP 100   Ron 100 points

Vanilla, balanced, Long, peppery, peppermint, clean, refreshing; this wine outshone the 2001 Yquem and Suduiraut we’ve had before, with a bit less botrytis but much more balance. We actually had this with the foie gras, and it was the perfect match.

2001 Rieussec Ron 90 points

Yquem like nose, low acid; Considering how great the other 2001 sauternes have been, this was a disappointment, a bit flabby and uninteresting other than the pronounced botrytis nose

1860 Justino Henriques Madeira Fanal,  Ron  100 points

Wow! There’s nothing better than an ancientMadeira in perfect shape. Alive, great acid balance, citrus, smoke, cherry, bark, vanilla, sea salt, Wine Of The Night. We should have tried this with all the other courses, but it would have blown the other wines (and our palates) away!

Pull

Another of my writing students has been published! Barbara Binns developed her book, Pull, while in my online class. It’s been published by WestSide Books and is available on amazon. Here’s my review:

Becoming A New Person

The greatest books invite us to become their main characters, experiencing their emotional and physical conflicts, suffering their defeats, and cheering for their triumphs. Pull, the brilliant debut novel by B. A. Binns, is just such a book.

Pull is populated with fully-realized inner city characters who are not stereotypes. While acknowledging the milieu of “dead-heads, thugs and wannabe” gangsta clowns, Pull’s characters defy expectation and avoid cliche. These are smart, thinking kids, who are well aware of their limitations as they struggle to make a place for themselves in the high school status quo.

From page one we’re launched into the precarious new life of David Albacore, who is running from a past that haunts him but is inescapable. As David struggles to take care of siblings orphaned by a father he despises, he finds himself unable to overcome the very same passions that drove that man to murder. And Binns perfectly captures the amped-up sexual angst of every teenage boy, as David is smitten by Yolanda, the hottest girl in the “in” crowd — a group he’s sworn to avoid.

When Yolando and David finally come together, sparks fly. But Yolanda means big trouble, because she’s pack leader Malik’s girl, and Malik has it out for David, not only as a romantic rival, but also on the basketball court and — most importantly — as a threat to David’s little sister.

Pull builds to an exciting climax, as David finds all of his problems converging, leaving him wondering what price he is willing to pay, and what it means to let go. Pull is a great read that will appeal to a wide variety of readers, because it’s about real people solving real problems, with love and compassion.

IAAPA 2010

This year’s IAAPA show (and the next ten years!) is back in Orlando. I did a book signing to benefit Give Kids the World. It was nice to see so many old friends who dropped by, but I think I’m going to keep my day job!

I also had a chance to drop by the Alcorn McBride booth, which looks fantastic. Loren really picked out nice furniture, and the show seemed busy.

Today was Ryan’s last day in Orlando, and he made the most of it, working with Adam until it was time to head to the airport. A very productive trip.