Food glorious food

Once and a while, a dinner so special comes along, that I just have to write about it.
This past Saturday night we had one of those dinners.
For you Bostonites, it was at Grill 23, a popular steak house in town. I have always enjoyed going there, however, I had not been in a while, as the previous few dinners I had there were just OK.

My brother, a CPA/Financial adviser, happens to have the wine directer of Grill 23 as a client. He emailed him to let him know we'd be coming in to celebrate our father's 65th birthday. I'm so glad he did...

When we sat down, we were presented with a 1.5 Liter bottle of Duval-Leroy champagne, a Brut which is 75% Pinot Noir and 25% Chardonnay. It was delicious.
Here's what Wine Spectator had to say about it:
“A big, full-bodied bubbly, featuring graphite, toast, lemon and nut aromas and flavors. Balanced with an assertive finish. Will improve with a few months of cellaring. Drink now through 2009”.
The bottle itself was beautiful, black with ornate gold decorations all over the bottle.
With the champagne, came a platter of seafood which included Jonah crab claws, lobster tails, shrimp and Island Creek oysters on the half shell. Wow.

But wait, there's more. With dinner came a bottle of Newton Claret, a bold red, which is primarily a mix of Merlot and Cabernet, but also contains some Cab Franc and Petite Verdot. It just so happens to be a favorite of my father's, so it was appropriate to say the least.

To top it off, we were presented with a dessert wine from Austria, specifically from the Kracher Weinlawbenhof winery in Burgenland. The wine, Kracher, is named for Alois Kracher, the gentleman who developed the wine. It was sweet and velvety on the tongue. Sadly, Alois Kracher recently died in December of 2007.

The food was delicious as well. For an appetizer I had the seared tuna, which was served with skewer of Kobe beef (was it really Kobe??? I don't think so, but it was still yummy), and a quail egg panna cotta. The tuna was crusted with a mix of spices and barely seared. It was good. The quail egg panna cotta was a bit to firm, but was still tasty none the less.
My dinner was scallops and foie gras. The foie gras was actually shaped into legos. Yes, I wrote legos, 4X2 to be exact. (Foie gras is actually duck liver. Believe me, I wouldn't eat anyone's liver unless it tasted good. Duck liver is buttery and sweet and really is delicious). I'm still wondering why they shaped the foie into legos, but, hey, it got me to order it....
For dessert I had sticky toffee pudding which was served as a mini bundt cake. It was accompanied by an ice cream made from a liquor called Biscotti Famosi, which has an anise flavor.

The food, mixed with the wine experience really made it a celebratory evening (I think I am still hung over today)....