April 26 and 27, 2023 Albuquerque and Wilmington, Delaware

 April 26 and 27, 2023 Albuquerque and Wilmington, Delaware

April 26

The 26th was the day before we left for a long weekend and there is a push to use all the PPIs and perishables.

But today was different because the dual order of menus was all mixed up.

I ate the hardy meal of the day for breakfast, the normal breakfast menu for lunch, and a normal lunch menu for dinner.

For breakfast I sautéed a scramble of a diced bratwurst sausage, some PPI rice, two mushrooms sliced, a slice of red onion diced, and two eggs.

For lunch I toasted two slices of bagel and spread them with cream cheese and garnished them with slices of Gravad lax, red onion, and capers.

And for dinner I made us a salad of slices of roasted lamb, tomato, two radishes, 1/4 of a cucumber, and sliced and diced red onion.

So a rather confusing assortment of dishes as the dat rearranged itself.  I also met with Shahin to give him my 2022 tax calculations and supporting documentation and received a Covid booster.

The most interesting thing of the day was watching PL No. 2 Man City crush No. 1 Arsenal 4 to 0 that brought Man City to two points from Arsenal, which is at real risk of losing its No. 1 ranking.

April 27 I woke up at 2:30. I am not sure if it was the Covid booster, the large lamb salad I ate for dinner, or the anticipation of the trip, butI was wide awake.

I lay in bed having vivid recollections of interesting events in my life for a while, but then got up.

I unloaded the dishwasher, I packed four containers, one with olives and pickled turnip spears, a second with two sliced pitas, a third with Suzette’s uneaten salad and tomato wedges, a fourth with the last of the labni and tzatziki.

I also packed an orange.

I then toasted two slices of bagel and spread them with cream cheese, and lay slices of Gravad lax and red onion and capers on them and made a cup of hot tea and watched TV until 4:00 when Suzette awakened.

We got dressed and loaded three grips into the Highlander and drove to the airport for our flight to BWI.

When we arrived at 3:00 there was confusion with the rental car that was finally sorted out by 4:00 and we drove north to YoYo and Marty’s home in Wilmington.

It was a happy reunion when we arrived at 5:30. We gathered in the kitchen dining area around a platter of salami and prosciutto and a cheese board with a wedge of that wonderful German brie with mushrooms, a Irish cheddar, and one other cheese and Marty opened a bottle of 2018 Tenuta di Renieri Chianti Classico Riserva that was smooth as silk going down the gullet.

At 6:40 we drove to Badrea in downtown Wilmington, our dinner destination.  We immediately saw that it was highly rated as the best restaurant in Wilmington or Delaware in 2019.

I remember the recent cartoon in New Yorker in which a customer asks his waiter, “Is this a bistro, a diner, or a gastropub?”

The menu did not disclose which with its trendy divisions of dishes into snacks, small plates, pasta, and feed the table. 

After I made my choice of The Burrata Pop Tart, a burrata puff pastry known, Suzette and Marty picked five dishes among the appetizers and small plates, while I perused the wine list and the by the glass beverage list on the back of the menu.

One of the wines caught my attention. It was described as an Alpine White, Lugana, Buglioni.  I had a deja vu recollection of when we traveled to Lake Garda with Suzette, Debbie, and Jeff fifteen years ago and stopped at the Maison de Vin at Lake Garda and tasted several several Lugana wines and even bought and brought back a bottle.

The waiter was not knowledgeable, so I asked him to show me the bottle and when he brought it and saw it was a Lugana and touched the sealed bottle and felt it chill, I said, “Please bring me a glass of that.”

Later a gentleman came by who was probably the sommelier and told me the grapes were raised 13 miles from Lake Garda. The flavor was unique, a bit of minerality/acid on the front end and slightly sweet on the back end of the pallet Later research proved that the Lugana region lies south of Lake Garda, exactly where we tasted the Lugana wines and the wine is made with a single local grape, Turbiana, which used to be called Trebbianno di Lugana.

I loved it like meeting an old friend.

Soon the food began to arrive in successive waves. First was the burrata pop tart a fluffy puff pastry filled with creamy burrata with a small bowl of onion and  fennel jam.  I instantly realized this was a gastropub of the highest order that excelled in creativity of food combinations and presentation.

Next  came a small plate of charred octopus with a small clump of crispy celery pave and a harissa zabaglione with its deep red tint.  Again a very pleasing dish that used the celeriac pave to ameliorate the harissa’s spiciness. 

The octopus was tender like it had been cooked in a pressure cooker before it was char grilled.

Then came a small plate with a rectangle of layered thin eggplant slices battered, fried and baked into a Neapolitan shape surrounded by small dots of Parmesan fondue (foam), tomato sauce, and infused basil olive oil.

Not as exciting as the other dishes but a very satisfying because there was a freshness to the eggplant that brightened the dining experience, which Suzette noted described the entire dining experience.

The fourth dish was really interesting. A slice of pork collar with two sauces, a dark BBQ like sauce of pork broth reduction flavored with candied ginger and a chipotle flavored Béarnaise Sauce with a pile of charred pineapple pieces on the side. The pork was so tender it was difficult to keep it from falling off my fork but the pineapple was a revelation, charred to the point that it caramelized.  It was a perfect dish.

The fifth and last dish was one of the most beautiful presentations I have ever seen. Look at the picture. It was five rabbit roulade, rabbit skin and a layer of meat wrapped around a ground rabbit ragout and a rabbit terrine; rabbit three ways with a plate of Sauce Valois, Béarnaise with a rabbit meat glaze that was covered with patches of different colored vegetable powders: green from spinach, purple from beets, yellow from corn, orange from carrots, and brown from braised rabbit.

Suzette and Marty shared a Belgium style ale.

After dinner we returned home and Marty ani shared a sip of Bernanroy XO Calvados and Suzette sipped a rum Zacapa and then we all fell into bed.

Bon Appetit