Sup?!

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It's been a while since I last sat down to dinner with the Specialist, so a small group of us found ourselves at Sup 1, one of her favorite hangouts.  As this wasn't my turf, I decided to leave the ordering to the ladies and just sit back...

This crowd loves oysters, so we started with a quartet of them:

Irish Rock

Fine de Claire - actually sweeter than I expected, with a metallic finish. 

La Perle - not sure whether this is Blanche...

(Crassostrea) Gigas - from South Africa.

Done with the oysters, we continued with more raw seafood.  In addition to the olive flounder wings, there was this roll made from squid stuffed with sea urchin, with a layer of seaweed (のり) and perilla leaves (紫蘇) in between.  Kinda interesting.

I also took a nice, plump botan prawn (牡丹海老).  Yum.  Decided to let my friend have the deep-fried head...

One more raw dish, in the form of steak tartare.  Not bad at all.

A couple of yakitori (焼き鳥) skewers came next... Chicken cartilage (軟骨) was alright.

Ox tongue (牛タン) is always a crowd-pleaser, and I happily tore the pieces off the skewer with my teeth...

The wagyu was nicely done... the marbled beef was succulent and grilled just right.  Perhaps a touch heavy with the pepper...

The roast suckling pig came next, and I had a couple of pieces of the ribs and some of the crackling.  Would have liked to have had some of the meat, but I had fun gnawing on the bones...

The duck confit casserole rice has always been a big seller, and it's not difficult to see why. 

I was well full by this point, and decided to pass on the next dish as well as dessert. 

But the point of our gatherings, as always, was to drink wine... and there are always plenty of bottles to go around...

Egly-Ouriet "Les Vignes de Vrigny" 1er Cru (disgorged Nov 2009) - made from Pinot Meunier and aged on lees for 40 months.  Nose was yeasty, a little oxidized and salty with minerals.  Quite well-balanced on the palate and not really acidic.

2001 Lucien Le Moine Echezeaux - a bit grassy and the first pour was a little too warm. Second pour after chilling revealed a little smoke, iron, minerals and sweet fruit. Not bad at all.

1997 Argiano Solengo - sweet fruit and mint in the nose. Lovely wine, but still amazingly tannic for something that's almost 14 years old... even more than 4 hours after I double-decanted the bottle. Needs more aging.

1998 Paolo Scavino Barolo Riserva Rocche dell'Annunziata - opened almost 2 hours before dinner started. Huge, concentrated nose with mint, forest, sweet fruit and lots of alcohol (14.5%). Sooo much tannin here I was looking for something to scrape them off my tongue... Last time I was in this situation was during Bordeaux en primeur tasting in 2009. Keep this in your cellar for another 10 years.  The Specialist decided to save half the bottle and make some more bolognese, after using some Pontet Canet to make an earlier batch...  That's some expensive meat sauce!

1996 Denis Mortet Clos de Vougeot - sweet fruit with lots of toast and pop corn. Acidity a little on the high side. Pretty nice.

1990 Beringer Nightingale - the color was dark caramel, with a very sweet nose of honey, medjool dates, prunes, raisins and acetone. Very, very sweet on the palate. Very happy I brought this bottle along.

Another inebriated evening with this crowd... for me at least.  I guess that's the price to pay for drinking lovely wines...