Lacking on Theme, Heavy on FUN!

The start to tonight's dinner was in no ways an inappropriate way to begin thematically. I generally spend far too much time grasping onto extremely unnecessary tie ins rather than actual tie-ins that are related to flavor, ethnicity, or flavor. If you need another example of this to be convinced please refer to last night's dinner.



We had a dinner guest, so I went with my favorite theme: foods I enjoy!

French(ish) Start

To start I got a fresh baguette, some La Tur cheese, and some sour cherry spread. This in no way set the stage for the rest of the food that was about to come!



Vaguely Asian First Course

For a salad I made this salad using up some broccoli stems, florets, carrot, sesame seeds, mirin, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and Sichuan pepper. I served it over some mixed greens which I'd tossed in sesame oil, lime juice, salt, and more Sichuan pepper.



Slightly Less Asian Main Course

For the main course I boiled some potato with celeriac, mashed them together with butter, milk, salt, and pepper, and served with some freshly seared tuna loin. I coated the tuna in a little salt, wasabi powder, and raw sesame seeds before searing it lightly in safflower oil with a drizzle of sesame oil.



American Wine Accompaniment

For a wine I served this Reisling because on the back label it said it was good with Asian food. I love how one wine can go with the foods from an entire continent. That's right, any food made by nearly 3 billion people can be matched up with this wine. Now that, my friends, is versatility.



American Beer Accompaniment

While the ladies enjoyed the extremely versatile wine I had the Fixed Gear American Red Ale from Lakefront Brewery. Even if you take this label at face value it really only works in North and South America which is probably less than 1 billion people. Nowhere near as all purpose as the wine served this evening.



Canadian Homestyle Dessert

For dessert Jen brought out her grandmother's tried-and-true "Napoleon" recipe. This is simply vanilla pudding and whipped cream layered with graham crackers and drizzled with melted chocolate. It's way easier to make than actual Napoleons and (in my humble opinion) a bit tastier.

I think the only thing that could have made tonight's dinner more incongruous would have been a pasta dish or perhaps some smoked salmon.

Sticking to themes is for weenies.