This is not a joke and the cake is not a lie: The spring equinox party

Rumor has it there was a fabulous potluck chez Awesomesauce on Sunday.

Alas plumduff’s amazing coconut chicken soup was not in this photograph, but it was in all our bellies soon enough.

Behind the amazingly good mango mousse cake was Mikan-san’s fantastic pannacotta and syrup WHICH WAS NOT HONEY-BASED as I kept asking her over and over again. Mikan-san, I leave you the honor of divulging your syrup secrets if you so desire.

Commentary please?

 

Modesty forbids

Mikan-san won’t mention that she made an awesome homemade bread so I will: Mikan-san, your bread was MOST EXCELLENT. Thank you for the sample. I om-nom-nom-ed it with great gusto.

Also, Awesomesaucers and attendees. Equinox party. I have no clue what I’m making as I don’t know what anyone else is making, and since no one knows what else they’re making, no one can decide… vicious circle!

So my question is this: does anyone know what ingredients they’re using or what kind of dish it will be –e.g. main course or dessert? I gotta tell you, anything I make for this event will be something totally new to me, so this is all uncharted territory. I feel a little “safer” doing a dessert but I don’t want to have the dinner be dessert-heavy if everyone else is doing a dessert too.

Ahem.

(Also, so we’re all on the same page, “tropical” means, I’m assuming, any of the following: coconut, pineapple, passionfruit, mango…? Anything else?)

 

Sel de la Terre—c’etait un coup de foudre

*twirls handlebar moustache with glee*

So I think the Awesomesauce is all agreed that Sel de la Terre provides an eminently satisfying meal. We invaded this unsuspecting Long Wharf restaurant yesterday evening and left victorious, full, happy, a bit poorer. Mikan-san and I went for prix fixe while Plumduff and Awesomesaucian-Yet-To-Be-Named went for different plates from around the menu.

The rundown (from what I can remember)–

Plumduff: Eggplant-goat cheese purée with olive oil and toasted black walnuts for starters, Oven roasted free range chicken breast with wild mushroom tart, arugula and sauce Robert (and artichokes, right)?

Awesomesaucian-Yet-To-Be-Named: Rosemary pommes frites as a side, Flatbread pizza with hummus, olive tapenade, mozzarella, spinach, caramelized onions and bacon (crunchy!),  and a very nummy looking salad, but I can’t remember which one it was… and a fantastically delicate creme brulee for dessert.

Mikan-san and I both had very tender shortribs on pureed potato for the main course, her first course was a really savory truffle soup? I think? Mine was a paté platter (YAY!). For dessert she had a chocolate pot and I had some very soft and crunchy chocolatey tarts. I’m drooling just remembering it all!

I’m sure everybody will post with their thoughts on what they ate… just trying to record the menu for posterity!

 

Can’t we just pay somebody to write a funny title for this post using “equinox”?

So…we’re having an Equinox shindig on the 29th, though it won’t actually be on the Equinox, it’s ok, because we’re ok. We haven’t decided yet if it’s going to be themed — ALL COCONUT ALL THE TIME?

I am very good at throwing things in a pan and burning them. A master, in fact.

Off-hand, I was thinking it’d be fun to do something way outside my comfort zone , but that’s pretty much everything. If it’s not Italian, Greek, Turkish or Lebanese, I have no idea how to make it and probably don’t have the right tools to cook it either. (“What? You mean you don’t use olive oil in this?”) Oh yea, and I’ll probably burn it.

Asano-mama will now give you all a vocabulary lesson. In Greek, the word for what we call “olive oil” is λάδι, pronounced “LAH-þee” (yes, that’s a þorn). It means oil, not olive oil, just oil, because why the heck would you use anything else? Sickos.