Monday, November 10, 2014

November 8, 2014 Lunch Vietnam 2000 Dinner Torinos@Home

Saturday morning after a meeting I drove to the Farmer’s Market around 11:30 for its last session of the year and bought 2 Chocolate Croissants at Le Quiche Bakery for $5.00, two baguettes at Bosque Bakery for $3.00 and a lovely small tea cup at Circlehands Pottery, my new favorite potter for $18.00.



 Then I drove to the bank and to eat lunch at Vietnam 2000 at the corner of San Mateo and Lead/Coal.  It was a warm day, so as I walked into Vietnam 2000 I ordered my usual favorite, Bun Cha Gio ( a large bowl filled with 2 fried pork egg rolls and grilled slices of pork on warm freshly boiled vermicelli rice noodles on a bed of cold shredded lettuce, basil and cilantro and mung bean sprouts).  I always ask for and receive extra dipping fish sauce and a small plate of additional cilantro, oriental basil and mung bean sprouts.  Today, perhaps because I was the only customer at the time I arrived, everything was hot and cooked to perfection.  I loved lunch. I sit by the window with its view of the Sandias, which I also like very much.  I could not help thinking about Willy, who also loves to join me for Bun Cha Gio at Vietnam 2000, sweating away in Dublin as he finishes his dissertation analyzing the proper design of city streets to accommodate pedestrians.
After I finished lunch I drove the ½ mile up San Mateo to Sprouts Farm Market to shop, which I had not done for over a week. I soon found new to me Saddleback Red Snapper filets from Fiji for $12.98/lb. at the meat counter and bought a 1 lb. center cut filet.  I then turned my attention to the produce area and bought a bunch of thin spring asparagus on sale for $1.68/lb., a 6 oz. container of Blackberries for $2.50 and about 1 lb. of Brussels Sprouts for $1.99/lb.  I then went to the bulk area and bought 7 grain granola on sale for $2.99/lb.

After paying and loading my purchases into the car I drove toward home on Lomas but felt compelled to stop at Jubilation Wine Shop at Lomas and Carlisle.  When I went in they were just setting up the tasting for the day.  In one room they were tasting spirits including a limoncello cream liquour, which I liked very much and in the larger lower level wine room four wines including a very nice Josh Simms blend from Napa Valley.  I decided to buy some wine, so I took a box and started selecting wines.  I usually look for wines that are on sale at Jubilation ans soon I found lots of them.  I selected a 2011 Château La Rogue (Kermit Lynch Coteaux du Languedoc silver medal winner for $12.99), a 2013 Dry Creek Dry Chenin Blanc for $11.99, a 2012 Trivento Torrontes Reserve from Argentina for $11.99 and an Acrobat2012 Oregon Rosé of Pinot Noir for $13.99, I bought two bottles of 2013 Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc/Viognier for $11.99 each two bottles of 2012 Cline Ancient Vines Mourvedre to age in the cellar for $14.99 and finally I could not resist a bottle of 2013 Archery Summit Willamette Valley Vireton Rosé for $29.95 destined to be our contribution to Thanksgiving dinner in Dallas with my brother, Billy and his wife, Elaine’s family.




I finally arrived home at around 3:30 just I time to see TCU win convincingly over Kansas State.

I rode from 4:00 to 5:00 to Montano and back and then took a shower and got dressed for dinner.  We drove to Torino’s@home and arrived a bit late at 6:15.  Bill and Sissy and Jeff and Debbie were already seated at the table.  We soon ordered wine, which is tricky at Torino’s because the cheapest bottle of wine is $30.00 for the house wine and it goes up quickly from there.  Our waiter was wonderful.  He poured me lots of tastes of wines to try. I decided on a Masi Valpollicella for $35.00 that tasted very clean.  Bill liked it and Suzette drank it with gusto and I enjoyed it with both of my dishes.  I split a Foie Gras torchon with caramelized onions with Suzette for our first course and I ordered a daily special of Poached Bacalau with steamed vegetables sauced with a creamy aioli for my main course, as did Bill.  Suzette ordered a daily special of baked manicotti stuffed with Butternut Squash puree.  Debbie ordered seafood on black ink pasta and Sissy ordered baked vegetarian lasagna and Jeff ordered baked lasagna with meat.  The baked pasta dishes are the best part of Torino’s menu in my opinion, but since the chef/owner is French I can not resist the opportunity to order French dishes at Torino’s. The other wine ordered was a carafe of the house white, which is chardonnay, which is what Debbie usually drinks. 

the Torchon with onions caramelized in balsamic

Bacalau

Baked Manicotti stuffed with Butternut squash


Black ink linguine with seafood

baked lasagna


Jeff, Debbie and Suzette

Sissie and Bill

Italian sponge cake with cream sauce
 The only person who did not like their dish was Debbie, who was expecting more seafood on her black ink pasta.  She really wanted a seafood dish and she was served something more akin to a real Italian second course of pasta with just a few pieces of seafood.

The most exciting and sad thing that happened during the meal was one of the other guests collapsed and had to be carried out of the restaurant on a stretcher by paramedics.  We ordered dessert before the incident and we all decided to leave without eating the dessert, because of the horror of the scene and we took the dessert home.  For Bill who manages medical care at prisons and Suzette who cares for really old folks, it must have been a deja vu memory of a really unpleasant day at work, where you watch someone collapse and you have to call for medical assistance. Alas, so much for our lovely Italian meal.  

The torchon was impeccably prepared and I was happy that there is a place in Albuquerque that prepares it.


BonAppétit

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