December 31, 2012 New Year’s Eve at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

December 31, 2012 New Year’s Eve at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

Our friends Cynthia and Ricardo tipped us off that Soul Kitchen was playing at the New Year’s Celebration at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.  We had also gotten a message from Suzette and Mark Dawson, about a lovely meal to be served by Klaus at La Provence, so we went by the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and looked at the menu and saw that it was a very impressive five course meal.

After some discussion we all decided to go for food and wine and music over food and wine and chose the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, especially because it was so close to our homes that it would be easy to get home after an evening of celebration and libations.  As Cynthia said, "We can crawl home". 

So on New Year’s Eve we dressed up and drove up 12^th Street to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center at 7:40 p.m.  Shortly after we arrived, Cynthia and Ricardo arrived.  Soon it became apparent that the arrangements were not as well organized as they could have been because apparently this was the first big New Year’s Celebration planned by the food service department.

So I asked if we could be seated at our table and we were the first to be escorted up to a large room on the mezzanine level where the larger tables forparties of 8 were set up.  We selected a table near a lighted wall display of pottery and the entrance, so we could hear the music most directly.

Soon after 8:00 our waitress arrived and we ordered a bottle of Kenwood Yulupa Cuvée Brut champagne, which is Kenwood’s restaurant line of wines and a blend of Chenin Blanc (our favorite grape of 2012), French Colombard, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with a very pleasing 1.5% residual cane sugar. 

Soon after 8:00 p.m. Suzette and Mark Dawson arrived and we decided to order a bottle of Acacia Pinot Noir for the red and a Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc for the white, which were brought with the first course of six assorted canapés served on cut out rounds of a dense seeded rye bread.   The canapés were lovely, extruded out of differently shaped nozzles of pastry tubes, but the flavors were not very exciting; several I remember were: a small mound of tuna salad, a piece of salami wrapped around a small pimiento stuffed green olive, a baby shrimp in a shrimp paste and an almond stuck into a lovely twist of almond paste.  Unfortunately, apparently they had been prepared well ahead of time and the bread was a bit stale.  

After the waitress took our orders and the two bottles of wine was served and things started looking up food wise.

All of us except Cynthia, who ordered the wedge salad with apple wood bacon, grape tomatoes, Maytag blue cheese and green onions, ordered the creamy brie and wild mushroom soup with a house made crouton.  I have never eaten brie and mushroom cream soup and I found it a delicious combination.  The soup was a chicken or veal stock base soup, and perhaps finished with some cream, so it was not as heavy and creamy as a milk base and the strong brie and mushroom flavors were balanced nicely with the broth.  I really enjoyed it with the last of my champagne.

We could hear the music, which began at 8:00 p.m. , so several of us danced between courses.

Next came the main course, which had been a very tough decision between either: chateaubriand served with roasted root vegetables and Chilean sea bass served on a puree of sweet potato and a balsamic reduction served with seasonal green vegetables or tea smoked duck breast served with a red wine and orange reduction served on a bed of pureed celery root and herb crusted lamb rack served on a light green curry sauce and a leek risotto.  There was an even split with each couple choosing to share both entrees between themselves, because we all good at sharing dishes.  I oredered the duck and lamb entree because I was attracted by the smoked duck and celery root (my favorite new vegetable of 2012) puree and the leek risotto.  All the entree dishes were delicious.  Everyone agreed that the Chilean bass and smoked duck were the most delicious meats and Cynthia and I thought the leek risotto was the best of all the vegetables, with the melt in your mouth tender chateaubriand a close third.

The racks of lamb was huge, over two ribs thick, and cooked only to very rare, so we had to call for steak knives, which were brought promptly and were the large wooden handled ones that everyone loves, so we were able to easily carve up the lamb and share it.

As soon as our entrees were finished three trays filled with five different cheeses, fresh fruits, crackers and a  dollop of honey and a separate bowl of house made dark cherry compote appeared.  We had finished the Acacia pinot noir with the entrees, so we asked our waitress to bring some tastes of the wine special of the night, a dark plummy flavored Barefoot Cabernet Sauvignon for $15.00, so we ordered a bottle of the Barefoot and dug into the slices of roquefort, manchego, gruyere cheddar and sliced gouda and fresh raspberries and blueberries and honey.  I loved the cherry compote that was dark and delicious.  Although the cheeses and crackers and fruits seemed to have been sourced at Costco, I would have done the same, so no demerits for the cheese course.

Desserts were next and they were both terrific, an eggnog crème brûlée and a really dense flourless chocolate Sacher torte with a fresh raspberry coulee.  I loved both.  The only personal negative with dessert I had is that in America it is acceptable to make a raspberry coulis with a Cuisinart and that leaves the seeds in the coulis, whereas in most French restaurants the preferred method is to press the raspberries through a columnar sieve that captures the seeds and results in a smooth clear seedless coulis, which I prefer because I do not like to pick raspberry seeds out of my teeth.   The only difference is the French method also removes all of the fruit pulp, which I guess Americans prefer.  The Eggnog crème brûlée was also delicious with a crispy toasted sugar crust and lots of flecks of nutmeg on the bottom of the bowl of thick creamy custard.

After dessert at around 11:30 p.m. we all made our way to the rather crowded dance floor (the IPCC used its polished travertine marble foyer for the dance floor, which we all found to be perfect for danding.  At about ten minutes before midnight tall flutes of Yulupa champagne were served to all by the staff.   So we danced with champagne glasses as a large video display on the wall counted down to midnight.  When the year turned, we all kissed, sipped champagne and toasted each other.  The band played on and we danced a bit more, until around 12:30 p.m. when we said warm goodnights to each other and complimented and thanked the new food service director, who is from Peru, for planning and executing a lovely evening.  He said this is INCC’s first big catered event and we told him we loved it and would love to attend wine dinners in the future if he planned some, and asked him to convey our compliments to Executive Chef, Michael Giese, that the food and menu were first rate.
After a short drive back down 12^th street, we happily snuggled in our bed by 1:00 a.m. at the end of a wonderful evening of food and wine and music.

Bon Appètit