Another Christmas Eve at home

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Per our tradition, we chose to spend a quiet Christmas Eve at home with family and friends.  This year we got My Favorite Cousin as well as the Compatriot to come over, so no one would need to have a lonely Christmas.  Like last year, we had a combination of simple dishes cooked at home as well as takeout items.

We started with some caviar from Nomad, which was served with some sour cream on blinis. We also got some unsalted potato chips because Sankala seemed to prefer them to blinis. Unfortunately, one of our tins of caviar had gone off and smelled like stinky feet, so we had to make do with just one tin of 100g...

We then moved on to a lone female flower/crucifix crab (花蟹), which was a tad small. Simply steamed and enjoyed straight up. Something usually missing from the Compatriot's diet.

Sankala also stir-fried some pea shoot tips (豆胚), which is something the Compatriot also doesn't get to enjoy in his normal habitat.

Duck tarte belle Hèléne - this was the pièce de résistance, just like it was 10 days ago at Caprice when I first had it. We were so impressed with it the other night that we immediately raised our hands to order it for delivery today.

Unfortunately, though, the version today did not contain any game meat - only duck and foie gras - in order to accomodate another order. While this still tasted delicious, there was definitely something missing... and the flavors were certainly milder.  But Hairy Legs did make up for it by giving me some gold foil that I could apply myself, which was a small consolation.

For dessert I took home this chestnut christmas house from Rosewood Hong Kong. This turned out to be a real hit, as the chestnut mousse wasn't as sweet as, say, your typical Mont Blanc. We also paired it with some chestnut gelato from Dood.

We kept things kinda civilized in terms of alcohol.

2000 Dom Pérignon P2 - still kinda muted when popped. A bit of toast on the nose.

1998 Billecart-Salmon Le Clos Saint-Hilaire - nice and caramelized, with good ripeness but still got the acidity.

2006 Sine Qua Non The Raven Syrah No. 4 - drank 1 hour and 45 minutes after decanting. Really big and powerful, with tons of vanilla oak, really fragrant and woodsy, cedar notes, really nice and exotic. Second pour about 2 hours and 15 minutes after decanting showing metallic notes, really ripe and sweet on the palate.

2006 Arietta H-Block Hudson Vineyards - drank 2 hours after decanting. Smoky grilled meats, more ripe, almost jammy, and slightly metallic.

Very happy to be able to spend this night with close friends and family.