An Italian Feast

MNSC held another tasting this past Monday, this time at Tuscany by H. This was highly anticipated as we were expecting some white truffles as part of the package, and we were not disappointed.

The dinner started out with some Parma ham and greens, which were sliced very thin and yummy. We then moved on to scrambled eggs with white truffle shavings. The eggs were imported from Italy and the yolks were supposedly more reddish (can anyone say Sudan Red dye?) which gave off a more orange tint to the finished product. The chef did it well and the eggs were still a bit runny.

Next up was the risotto with mushrooms and white truffle, a perennial favorite. Here the risotto was also a bit runny, which was very much to my liking. The white truffles were wonderfully perfumed, even though the quality was supposedly inferior compared to last year. It seems that supply is short in HK this year, and buying it from restaurants will cost around HKD 110/g, or close to USD 15,000/kg...

The main course was prime rib, which was slow cooked and so very tender. I was getting full at this point and had a difficult time finishing all the meat. But it WAS yummy.

Finally we had a cheese platter and dessert platter. We were served big blocks of gorgonzola, provolone (really nice and probably my favorite of the evening) and some others. But we were just really stuffed and had to call it quits.

Oh, and of course we can't leave out the wine! We were served a vertical of Paul Jaboulet's famed Hermitage La Chapelle, one of the greatest Hermitage around (if not THE Hermitage). The tasting was blind, of course, and we had the '79, '81, '82, '85, '89, '90 and '91 (but not in that order).

The '82 was the clear winner of the evening - it was just absolutely beautiful. The '89 and '90 were very closed, and very disappointing.