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| New York City. Dec. 29, 2021 |
A [personal] review. Arriving at the gilded reception where the maître d' greeted us to our table was immediate to send the sommelier, noticing the need, after peeling off my heavy scarf intuitively. Fig carpaccio with the Alsatian Beaujolais summoned. Impressive match. Famous French chefs amuse with symmetry. This, gentleman. is local honeycomb with chive fromage blanc. Wine choice is an essential arbiter to taste perceptions. The genius to haute cuisine. Notwithstanding keen observations of the professional table staff to timing and palpable exquisiteness. It is easy to lose interest in the formation of an elevated dining experience if not through the osmosis of service it inheres. And then the squid ink gnocchi (with a silky golden egg yolk at the center) descended on the table gracefully. The rest of the story is a mirage accounting of events intractable, because the point of it all was the reunion of a perfect companionship around food performance they celebrated all over the world. Conversant not perfunctorily with the next table, evident were travel passions and academic politics enhanced. The former took a discreet picture from his phone of the writer fully engaged with others. Like Pamela Hanson's black and white off-assignment from fashion to take on social scenes with the lens on being. In his enthusiasm the writer explained to the sommelier that Andrew Rich was a label in the Willamette Valley blending varietals that captured the region's terroir. Thus inevitable with the merguez-chickpea ragout plate came the Bergström reserve pinot noir as company. They both remembered that nothing as exquisite as that pairing was achieved since Zavala, Croatia's zinfandel with Adriatic mussels, an old trip they took to the Balkans one fine summer season on the golden age of their time. When they were just starting to build their lives together (and home) in Portland, Ore., he came across an article in the Times magazine and read aloud to the writer while he was unpacking groceries in the kitchen about the lavender fields of Hvar Island that almost seventy percent of it bloomed all season long. It was the reason they went that year and fell in love with the country. Voyages far and wide were impulses they shared with immediate resonance. And action. They were like Lewis and Clark, but discovering otherwise that night again their internal landscapes to pioneer reaching together in their minds... [forever].
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