I slept until 8:30, nearly a new world record.
Suzette was hungry so she chopped up a couple of PPI baked potatoes and sautéed the potatoes in butter and olive oil o make Cottage Fries. Then she added to the same large skillet two smoked pork chops I had bought at El Super last Wednesday. These are processed by Hormel and they are delicious. Finally she added four eggs to the skillet and fried them with the cutlass and the potatoes. The result was an agglomeration of egg, pork, and potato. We both drank Clamato juice with lime juice. Here is a photo.
Suzette went to the Farmers’ Market to but tomatoes and Persian cucumbers for the salad to be served at her big Food to Field meal.
I rode to Montano and back and then showered and dressed. At noon I suggested we go out for lunch. We decided to go to Vietnam 2000. When we arrived Suzette studied the menu and finally decided on one of our favorite dishes that is only served in Albuquerque at Vietnam 2000 as far as I know. It is called Flour sheet and it is steamed cucumber, green onion slices, and mung bean sprouts
covered with wide sheets of rice paper with your choice of toppings and crushed peanuts on the side. Suzette ordered fried egg rolls, grilled pork, and pork loaf as our toppings. It is served with a bowl of fish sauce for dipping and to liquify the sticky rice paper so you can separate the sheets.
We had had a huge breakfast so we split one order, which turned out to be almost too much for us. The dish is unusual and beautifully composed. It is the closest Vietnamese dish I have ever found to a truly French dish.
We also ordered Vietnamese iced coffees, which use chicory coffee and a dripper that generates a really strong coffee that is sweetened with condensed milk and served over a tall glass of ice cubes.
We really enjoyed lunch and I welcomed some nourishment after my ten mile bike ride.
We went home and I worked and Suzette went to the Center to get everything ready for the party.
Willy picked me up at 5:50 and drove us to the Center. When we arrived at 6:40 folks were arriving so we went to the gazebo were the champagne and glasses were set up. Willy helped me open and pour the Gruet Blanc de Noir and Brut champagne until about 7:30 when the appetizer course of egg salad, homemade crackers, and beef liver pate was served in the main tent.
We took the last few bottles of champagne to the main tent and I helped the other two or three servers serve the still wine. This year there was a superb selection of wines. There was Gruet’s new Chenin Blanc, Rose of Pinot Noir, and the newly released Petit Meunier. We also served a Pasando Tiempo’s Chardonnay and Riesling and two Tempranillos, Casa Avril and Tularosa Vineyard. It was an impressive selection of high quality local wines.
The food was equally impressive. The second through fifth courses were all served together, Salad made with the Center’s garden lettuce and a five herb dressing with lovely slices of the tomatoes and cucumbers Suzette bought at the Farmers’ Market and marinated quail eggs, pollo Real chicken in s cream sauce with peas from the Center’s garden over egg noodles, and a vegetarian quiche. A container of egg drop soup was placed at each place. The egg drop soup was my favorite dish of the entire dinner. The chickens were cooked in water to create a broth. Then the chickens were boned to remove the meat. The meat went into the creamed chicken with egg noodle dish and the bones left after the meat was removed from the chickens were roasted in the oven and then added to the broth to enrich and enhance the broth’s flavor. Everyone at our table loved the Egg Drop Soup. I loved everything on the menu. I drank a glass of Chenin Blanc with the soup and a glass of Petit Meunier with the rest of the dinner.
Suzette thanked folks and read several poems. I discussed the wines and there was a raffle that interspersed the lively conversation.
Finally after everyone finished dinner, dessert was served, a decadently rich creme brûlée with one’s choice of either caramel or chocolate sauce and crushed praline candy.
A beautiful meal that ended around 9:00.
Every year I find this meal to have some element that is revelatory. This year what I found interesting was that not only were all the eggs farm fresh eggs, but there were four or five different types of eggs from four or five different breeds of chicken and each breed of chicken’s eggs were used for a different dish. I could not discern a difference in eggs from one dish to the next except for the blue eggs from Pierre’s French chickens that were used to make the crème brûlée. They seemed creamier.
I was surprised that fewer people attended this year’s meal. Suzette said several commented on the meal being high in cholesterol, which may have kept some away.
Other than a sharp breeze during a part of the meal the weather was perfect.
Bon Appetit
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