Billy went to the gym and Elaine made us steel cut oatmeal, which we ate with slices of banana and milk. I added a pinch of brown sugar to mine and Suzette added a pinch of salt to hers.
Then we went shopping for groceries to cook and serve all the family members on a Sunday at the big BBQ dinner at Billy and Elaine’s house.
Sarah, Elaine’s sister, and her husband, Charlie, and their grown children Rachel and Phillip were flying in for Sandy’s funeral so, I wanted to buy some cheese and baguettes to serve as snacks for folks who would visit and sit with the family.
After ordering 10 lb.s of pork ribs and three lb.s of pulled pork for pick up on Sunday Elaine drove us to three stores. The first was Eatzi’s, a specialty grocery specializing in prepared dishes for take out. On one side of the store is a cold line that makes salads. On the other side of the store is a hotline that puts together to go containers of cooked dishes. In the middle is an island surrounded by cold prepared dishes. I went to the island first and asked the attendant to pack me a lb. of chicken salad with grapes, which she put in a 2 inch deep clear plastic tub ($10.99/lb.), Elaine fetched a whole wheat and a white flour baguette. Then I started looking at cheeses. There was a display with a cream cheese smear seasoned with garlic and herbs and slices of baguette, so I tried it and liked it, so the attendant showed me where the smears were and I selected a container with two large balls of garlic and herb cream cheese for $5.49.
We then went to Sprouts where Elaine bought more sweet potatoes and Zucchini for the side dishes for Sunday’s BBQ dinner.
Elaine then drove us to the Central Market at Preston and Royal, which is high rent commercial area. The store was huge but not quite as large as the big CM Billy drove us to on Greenville yesterday for fish. This store seemed to have a larger cheese section with a more experienced cheese staff. I bought a wedge of Spanish Cabrales blue cheese. Suzette a French goat cheese dusted with wood ash. I was looking for a semi hard cheese and asked an attendant if they had Leyden, since there were no wedges of it and he said yes and lifted a whole approximately 20 lb. wheel of it that was leaning on the wall behind the cheese cases and asked me how much did I want. I asked the price and when he sad $11.99/lb., I said “1 lb.”.
He then cut the wheel into two halves vertically on the table of his large wire cheese cutter and then cut one of the half wheels vertically to create a quarter wheel. Then he cut one of the quarters into
halves horizontally to create two two inch thick quarter rounds. I indicated I wanted my wedge from the thicker side. He weighed the quarter wedge, which was just a bit under three lb., and then cut me a wedge with the wire cutter that was just over 1 lb. I was dazzled by the cheese cutting spectacle and thanked him for cutting me a fresh wedge. He cut a small chunk off the other wedge and gave tastes to the lady standing next to me and Suzette and Elaine. A very lovely cheese experience.
There was a special on Delice, the French triple cream Brie style cheese made with a more acidic rennet for $9.99 for a small wheel that looked to be a bit over ½ lb. We bought one of those also.
We then drove home. Billy and Elaine went to Plano to arrange funeral arrangements for Sandy and I took a nap until 2:30 when we drove to Love Field to pick up Rebecca and Micky. Rebecca brought us jars of tomato jam and peach and vanilla jam she had made at Micky’s family’s house on Martha’s Vineyard last summering fresh bagels from a famous bakery near her apartment in NYC.
I cut one bagel in half and spread some cream cheese on both halves and then slices of fresh Leyden and ate them with real relish. The bagel was soft and chewy and the Leyden was so creamy it practically melted in my mouth. The best food experience of the day, after the elaborate cheese cutting demo at CM.
At 6:15 we drove to Mercury Restaurant, casual fine dining restaurant located in a strip center at Preston and Forest. The menu was all about meat, a few appetizers, a few fish and poultry dishes, and lots of chops of beef. Suzette and I both chose the lamb shank served with polenta and roasted vegetables. Billy, Elaine, Rebecca, and Micky had a bit of trouble navigating all the steak choices, because the menu described something that was not available, a double porterhouse, so Micky, Elaine and Rebecca decided to split a 30 oz. porterhouse and a 9 oz. filet mignon. This was Micky’s first visit to Dallas and he seemed thrilled to be eating a real Texas steak dinner. Billy ordered a 16 oz. ribeye steak. The pre were three side dishes ordered also, French fries, sautéed mushrooms in a very pleasant a jus sauce, and Brussels sprouts.
I also ordered an appetizer of a seared slice of foie gras served on a foie gras flavored flan garnished with sautéed mushrooms in a sweet sauce. A rather elegant presentation. Our waiter was kind enough to bring six small plates and I cut the piece of foie gras and the flan into six sections and served each person a small plate with a taste of foie gras, flan and several mushrooms.
The wines were all expensive, so I picked one of the least expensive ones, a Frogs Leap Zinfandel /Petit Syrah blend from Napa for $62.00. With all the meat we needed two bottles.
The two steak combo was impressively served on a large wooden serving tray with the porterhouse t-bone standing up in the middle.
Here is a picture of the dishes.
Suzette was the first to notice that there were thin slivers of preserved lemon in the roasted vegetables. What a surprise. The polenta was also creamy and deliciously flavored with cheese and the shank was cooked to perfection so that at the touch of a fork the meat fell off the shank bone. I was totally impressed that there was a really creative, proficient chef in the kitchen.
I had seen the name of the chef/owner as we entered the restaurant but it was not until I wrote this blog that I checked the Mercury website and saw that there really was a creative, proficient chef in the kitchen. Here is the Mercury’s website description of Chris Ward.
(Executive Chef and Partner Chris Ward, the recipient of many accolades including “Rising Star Chef” by the James Beard House Foundation and “Best Chef in Dallas” by D Magazine, invites you to experience imaginative, award-winning cuisine in a sophisticated setting with a casual
neighborhood atmosphere at The Mercury, one of Dallas’ treasured fine dining experiences since
1998.)
So Billy picked a really good restaurant with both imaginative dishes and the best quality steaks, the perfect menu for upscale North Dallas diners. The restaurant is probably within two miles of George Bush’s home. Think George Bush as the restaurant’s model diner, a rich well travelled Texas oil man. God bless them for keeping this gem of a restaurant going.
The restaurant was filled on one of the nastiest nights of the year. A freezing drizzle awaited us when we left the restaurant.
When we returned home Billy and Elaine made a special dessert for us. They opened a bottle of German cherries preserved in kirschwasser they bought thirty years ago on one of their first trips to Germany or Switzerland and Billy heated the PPI chocolate ganache from last night’s dinner and we made parfaits of vanilla ice cream, brandied cherries and chocolate sauce.
As I took a bite of the re-hardened chocolate sauce that I had poured over the ice cream and kirschwasser and cherries I had a déjà vu moment of eating my first Dilly bar at DQ in my youth.
Bon Appetit
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