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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