Piccolo - December 16, 2015
Lately it seems like another month means another Piccolo wine dinner. This one was announced in an email at midnight on Sunday for a Wednesday dinner. I replied back shortly after waking at six in the morning on Sunday that I was interested. One of a kind meals by Doug Flicker paired with wines selected by manager and sommelier in training James Springer II are really hard to pass up.
The set up for these wine dinners is in the back room, you get to walk through the kitchen to get there. In that room, you’ll find a long table that seats 10 to 12 people in the center, a few side tables, a book shelf filled with some of the great cook- and wine-books, and a small wine fridge that houses some of the bottles on Piccolo’s great wine list.
The weather wasn’t terrible, but there was some precipitation, so a threesome of the 10 top cancelled. Then another foursome misunderstood the concept of the meal and menu and begged off to the dining room. (They thought it was just a special menu, not a special seating, they’d planned on doing their gift exchange during the meal with their friends they hadn’t seen in a while.) So it was me and two other people in the back room. Thankfully the staff at Piccolo is as engaging as they are accomplished, that and the fact we three were there for good food and wine meant we at least had a few things in common to talk about. It ended up okay, and the foursome, after dinner and hearing about some of our conversations, apologized for bailing and indicated they’d definitely do the intended experience in the future. I hope so, it’s a great one.
Timenoix agnolotti with foie gras, compressed apples, and chervil (paired with Paul Jaboulet Aine La Chapelle Hermitage Blanc, 2006): This wine was amazing, as was the agnolotti. Paired together they gave the cheese & foie an almost brown butter flavor that lingered nicely during the course.
Black cod with celery root, white asparagus, black truffles and smoked mussels (paired with Domaine JeanLouis Chave Hermitage Blanc, 2010): The smoked mussels on this were amazing, maybe the best mussels I can remember having that were part of a composed dish. The cod was nice and firm and had a good amount of salt that paired wonderfully with the wine.
Pork cheek with morcilla, celery, and escarole (paired with Domaine La Barroche Signature Châteauneuf-du-Pape, 2011): I love pork cheek meat, to me it’s the equivalent pig part to beef’s oxtail. The prep on this was reminiscent of the traditional UK dish faggots, wherein some form of offal is wrapped in caul fat and cooked long and slow. The morcilla (blood pudding) added a nice minerality that went well with the wine and bitterness from the greens. I’m also a huge fan of the way celery is used in this ribbon method in a few of the dishes I’ve been lucky enough to try.
Lamb loin with bulgur wheat, roasted parsnip, and parsnip yogurt (paired with Guigal Châteauneuf du Pape, 2009): The prep on this one is intricate and every step shone in the final product. Lamb belly was rendered down and then the loin was submerged and aged in that for days before final preparation. For the parsnip yogurt, it was prepared, pureed, then inoculated and allowed enough time for the enzymatic reactions to occur and impart flavor. The bulgur was prepared in a method that yielded a great risotto like texture and a very nutty flavor, very good. This paired amazingly with the wine. It’s one of those wines you wish you’d known about when it was newer and abundant. But these periodic passions and fleeting fondnesses make it seem more amazing sometimes, don’t they?
Crème fraîche tart with cara cara oranges, candied walnuts, and kumquatport sorbet (paired with Warre’s Otima 10year Tawny Port): Great. Reminiscent of some of the great stuff Diane Yang is doing at Spoon and Stable. The port had the amazing effect of cutting through a lot of the citrus flavors and revealing the nut’s flavor, but only when sipped just before tasting the dessert.