October 24, 2015 Lunch – Lan’s Dinner – Diana Stoneberger’s Retirement Party

October 24, 2015 Lunch – Lan’s  Dinner – Diana Stoneberger’s Retirement Party

I had a good long talk with Luke and a shorter talk with Billy in the morning.  At 10:00 I grabbed my new picture and my photograph of Georgia O’Keefe by Laura Gilpin and drove to Santa Fe.  I delivered the Agnes Sims picture to the framer and then drove to Andrew Smith’s Gallery.

 I had a wonderful conversation with Andy Smith during which he was kind enough to give me an appraisal price for the Gilpin photo and confirm the value of my William Clift.  Among the things we discussed included the newest tintype image attributed to Billy the Kid and another tintype of the Kid, both of which have been offered to Andrew.  He said he had passed on the one in the TV show because Billy’s face is obscured by some smudge of the plate, and that there is another image for which research is being done to validate it as an authentic photo of Billy the Kid at this time.  I loved talking with Andy, because is so pleasant and clever (he used to practice law) and seems to be at the center of the American photography market.

I then called Davida and made lunch plans to meet at Lan’s.  I then went to Owings Gallery and saw a nice Farney of a group of Indians talking ($300,000) and taked to Mark.   I then did a quick run through Aaron Payne Gallery, because Aaron was not there and went to Lan’s for lunch.  

I had to wait a while for Davida, so I read the current New Yorker article on the campaign for the Presidency.  After a while I became hungry, because I had only eaten a small Apple for breakfast, so I ordered an appetizer.  Lan brought me two lovely Sping Rolls with one of her wonderful aromatic Vietnamese sauces for dipping.  I had never had this kind of Spring Roll before.  It was vegetarian, a rice wrapper tightly wrapped around chopped lettuce, parsley, cilantro and homemade pickled ginger. It was fabulous.  I left one for Davida. When she arrived and tasted it, she went wild, and said, “this is the best thing I have ever tasted, I could eat these all day long, let’s get another one.”

So we did and it was delicious also. I ordered 

11. HOI AN CAO LAU $14 Pork tenderloin marinated w/ special viet spices, garlic + shallots, w/ organic salad: arugula, bean and sunflower sprouts, green onions, cilantro and fresh herbs served w/ rice noodles 

Davida was hungry and asked Lan, “What dish will be a lot of food.”  Lan gave several suggestions and Davida decided to order

9. BO SAO LEN (BEEF, LAMB, OR CHICKEN) $15 Thin sliced beef or chicken(breast) w/ pineapple, sweet onion, shallots, org. carrots, tomato, basil, limeleaf, roasted shallots, sesame seeds, cilantro served w/ jasmine rice or rice noodles

Davida did not specify whether she wanted rice of noodles and the dish was served with rice.  She said next time she would order it with noodles and more sauce.  There is always a shakedown period in getting to know a new good restaurant when one has to,learn how to order and get in synch with the menu and the kitchen and we are still in that period at LANs.  Alternatively, when i ate several weeks ago at LANs with Amy, she had settled on her favorite dish and ordered it and enjoyed it.  By the way Amy and Vahl are currently traveling on a postal ferry up the coast of Norway.  At this time of year it is the “Land of the Midday Sun” because the darkest period of the year is approaching.  I am looking forward to their return to hear all about it.

After lunch I returned to Albuquerque and slept for several hours. At 5:00 I rode to Montano and back, showered and at 7:00 went to Diana Stoneberger's home for her Retirement Party.  Diana is in Suzette’s girl group, so I talked with several of the members of it.  In fact I ate with Linda and her husband.  The dinner was catered by Bucco’s Italian Restaurant, I think.  It included a penne tossed with Alfredo sauce, chicken and Italian sausage, Lasagna Bolognese, and two types of salad.  I chose the Cesar Salad.  The food was delicious and filling.  I noticed that there were quart containers of sauce and I asked the caterer if I could have extra sauce and he said, “By all means, I prefer these dishes with extra sauce.”  The Alfredo sauce was a little heavy, but the Marinara sauce was fabulous and added flavor and a more saucy texture to the cavelike baked lasagna.  I also sprinkled Parmasen cheese on the dishes. 

  Dinner at Diana's Retirement Party

Diana’s brother Richard was pouring wine and poured me a glass of Hahn Pinot Noir, which was a heavier California pinot without the delicate pinot flavor, but very drinkable, especially with the zesty Marinara Sauce of the lasagna.

Many of Bob and Diana’s golfing buddies were at the party and when I asked Bob, her husband, if they had any plans, he enthusiastically said, “We love to play golf with each other and we plan to play a lot of golf.”

Mimi Montgomery came over and said hello and Larry and she stopped for a moment and said hello as they were leaving.

I passed on the cheesecake, which one person reported as tasting great and the garlic bread, which also looked good.

I left at 9:00 and drove to the airport to await the arrival of Suzette’s flight from Houston.  It arrived an hour late due to a delay in Houston as they waited on the runway for a gap in the rainstorm caused by   Hurricane Patricia.  We went home and fell into bed.

Bon Appetit