The Final Final Frontier

The date is June 26th, the occasion is La Porte Brune‘s monthly underground dinner in Walla Walla. This is the final dinner which I will work, owing to the fact that I’ve accepted a job in Sonoma County. Much like when I first moved to Walla Walla, I don’t know many people upon arrival, but by the end of the night we’re playing rock band, and I have more than a feeling that the same thing will happen the next time around.

The first course is a Cayuse cherry bomb; all flair with little nutritional value. This is a familiar conundrum, with late nights at The Green Lantern often rendering my system in a less than desirable state the following sunrise. Luckily, this time around there is a ping pong table but no ping pong incident. The bouncers kept cool and the night was relatively stress-free, save for the broken glass upon opening that Dunham Riesling. My bad.

Spring in Walla Walla

A salt roasted beet and asparagus salad follows, and Andrae fails to disappoint again. Spring time in Walla Walla is beautiful and this dish captures that essence; being paired with the 2009 Dowsett Family Gewurztraminer doesn’t hurt. The best salad in Washington deserves its best Gewurztraminer, and it receives no less. Skiing at Bluewood is but a distant memory, as is the time that I fell extremely awkwardly on my binding and had a case of blue balls for a week, literally.

Chickpeas are something which I’ve grown to appreciate over the years, and voila, out comes a chickpea stew with morels. Did I mention all of the ingredients for this dinner are local? The one exception is the music, currently “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette. The chickpeas are a sleeper, and I admit I’ve eaten more than my share of this dish. The subtle 2008 Rotie Southern White is a complimenting it well, almost too well, it’s actually getting kind of creepy.

When I moved to Walla Walla in 2008 the first thought I had was a longing for bread pudding toast. That dream has become a reality, and it’s absolutely incredible. The texture alone provides a surreal experience capable of converting the masses, but luckily my taste buds work and the combination results in pure exhaustion as I realize I’ve been too satisfied to breath for the last four minutes. I also forgot to mention that I’m drinking the 2008 Kerloo Tempranillo, one of my favorite Washington wines; pure liquid pumpitude.

There was a time in January of 2010 where my schedule proved gaping. With the help of Mike and Eric, I filled this void with a big piece of meat which became this very blog. The steak is on the grill and the moon is rising over the Blue Mountains; the night has become magical and this post has become cheesy. The steak is cooked perfectly, as Andrae does with everything, and it’s atop some potatoes with local goat cheese. The Sleight of Hand Archimage provides the tannins to wash down the protein – protein!

Well, the final course is here and the night has gone by so quickly. My final La Porte Brune course of my final weekend in Walla Walla has arrived. It’s housemade ricotta over a strawberry rhubarb broth; it sounds so strange you have to wonder if it’s real, but like Walla Walla, it actually exists. Not only do both exist but both are on the short list of adventures everybody needs to experience. The dinner is over and Rockband has become the name of the game; anyone who thinks a five course wine dinner is too serious to involve a Nintendo Wii jam session: you’ve got another thing coming.

My time has been served, and before I knew it the U-haul was packed and ready to rock. It’s back to the first course now, but hopefully it will come without a run-in at the local dive bar this time around. I’ll miss many things about Walla Walla: the dinners, the Blues, the amazing wines, the frisbee golf course, the Green, the Blue, the Red, the Brass, the Marc, and of course, chef Andrae Bopp’s killer culinary stimulations. Oh, and most of all, the people which make the town tick, for without them Walla Walla would be nothing but an Offspring song. Maybe Santa Rosa will prove itself, but it has a long ways to go on the place so nice they named it twice, which just maybe will one day become the place so nice I moved there twice.

My New Home

Swine Time

I often wonder what wine tasted like 500 years ago. Somehow I’m willing to bet it’s a lot better today, but at the same time I wonder if wine was enjoyed more before we really understood it. On occasion it’s nice to stop analyzing every detail of a wine and just drink it for pure palatable pleasure. Last Saturday’s La Porte Brune was one of those occasions.

Far removed from the hundreds of wine tweets coming through my feed every hour, 30 guests and a few staff members enjoyed a five course meal prepared by non-other-than Andrae Bopp inside a flourishing greenhouse. Andrae started off hot as usual, with a croquette served over romesco sauce that was one of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth, and I’ve put a lot of things in my mouth. He didn’t look back – the second course, a fava bean flan with wild Oregon Morel fonduta, literally blew my socks off. The pairing with the 2009 La Bastile Blanche Bandol rose was seamless, much like brownies fresh out of the oven with a nice glass of cow milk.

As a species, we Homo sapiens have come a long way in the last few years. I’m not sure when we first thought it was a good idea to squeeze the utters of cows and then drink the fluid, but brownies would not be the same without it. In a similar fashion, the 2007 Coho Russian River Valley Pinot Noir would not have been the same without the fresh wild Alaskan King Salmon accompanying it. It’s only very recently in the history of mankind that we’ve been lucky enough to eat whatever we wish whenever we want it, but a portion of us have chosen to give up that luxury in favor of reverting to the hunting and gathering days. Perhaps this is more ironic than anything Alanis Morissette has come up with.

This I don’t understand, and luckily I’m not referring to myself, because the main course on this particular evening was very much an animal. A 49-pound Carlton Farms suckling pig was sacrificed on this day, and it went out with a bang. Served over potatas panaderas and along side the 2004 Vina Santurnia Rioja Reserva, this course was a lesson in decadence. Perhaps this is what wine tasted like 500 years ago. No less decadent was the dessert which followed, a chocolate pot de creme with local strawberry compote served with a Banyuls (fortified Grenache-based dessert wine from Southern France).

On this night food and wine were simply enjoyed in the presence of great company in a beautiful setting. (thanks must be given to hosts Joan and Mark Bateman of Orchidaceae) Luckily no one in the crowd was vegan, as that might have caused some strife. For the non-vegan readers out there (I know we have a few), the next La Porte Brune is June 26th, and it’s an experience which everyone should have the pleasure of partaking in at least once. This includes suckling pigs.