Best Thanksgiving Ever

[xela]

I just got home about an hour ago from what was quite simply the best meal I have ever had in my life. Two friends (C & C) with a large house host a dinner every year to which they invite a selection of their friends. It's something of a co-operative affair: everyone is asked to help out, and we share the cost of the ingredients — but C & C plan the menu and do the majority of the work. This year there were sixteen at the table, which is to me about the most people who can sit at one table and talk. I am in a better headspace for socializing these days than I've been in years, and that, in combination with the company of some incredibly bright people with talents in a variety of fields, made for an evening (and some hours into the morning) of delightful conversation. I showed up around 4:30 in the afternoon, helped out in the kitchen until we sat down around 8:30, and left, after helping with the cleaning up, around 2:30 in the morning, feeling more buoyant and alert than when I arrived. And even though I'm currently stuck wearing the aircast on my left leg again, I was (and am) in no pain, and am not, even now, fatigued.

It is of course impossible to separate the delight from an evening in such wonderful company from my delight in the amazing food. Merely listing the menu cannot begin to convey any sense of what a wonderful meal it was, but I want to record it here so I can remember it in the future:

1. The Three Musketeers: a trio of skewers served in a martini glass
   • sautèed duck liver with ginger and orange
   • fresh water chestnut with scallion and shiitake
   • Szechuan-flavour duck sausage with grilled tropical fruits
   Wine pairing: Muralhas de Monaco Vinho Verde 2005
2. Edamame Soup, served with caramelized mushrooms, smoked salt, a duck crisp and sasabi sabayon
3. Tea-Smoked Duck served Beijing Style, with scallion brushes, hoisin sauce, and handmade wrappers, accompanied by blackened green beans.
   Wine pairing: Gewurztraminer Domaine Jumbrecht 2004
4. Intermezzo: sparkling sake served with green tea ice
5. Shaved Beef in Lapsang Souchong Duck Broth, with four-treasure sticky rice in banana leaf
6. Confining the Cranes to Their Nest: duck confit served in a nest of noodles accompanied by baby bok choy with black mushroom
   Wine pairing: Condado de haze Ribera del Duero 2003
7. Dessert:
   • Towers of Hanoi: goat's milk custard layered with gallette, assorted fruits, créme chantilly, topped with a caramel rum sauce
   • Dessert Crepes filled with Nutella and garnished with lemongrass-ginger-vanilla-orange créme anglaise, served with macerated oranges and sprinkled with ground hazelnuts

Special highlights of the meal were C's homemade duck sausage in the first course; the smoked duck, which nearly melted in my mouth and tasted heavenly; the baby bok choi — and, most especially, the desserts. The crepe was the best dessert I have ever had, hands down, and the custard as subtle and delicious as any other dessert I can remember having ever had.

Lest anyone wonder: no, I am not drunk. I drank, as I always do, in moderation, and it is now a good three hours since my last sip of wine. I am, quite simply, delighted.

Comments

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

Sounds fantastic! The perfect combo of fine food, fine wine and excellent company, the menu is stunning!

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

Just woke up, and I'm still on that buzz.

[coraline]

my goodness. i'm very jealous.

[jered]

Wow. How do they handle the logistics? I spent two days cooking in advance, and while mostly things come together well, multiple courses always becomes stressful. For example, I made the soup the day before, but I still have to heat it up, finish with cream, and plate. The salad can't be made too far in advance. The ice cream can be made and frozen, the pies can be done in advance, but they still need to be baked at the end. And so forth...

Do your friends hire staff to help with the event? Do they have past professional kitchen experience?

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

They appear to handle the logistics exactly the way I would: Plan in detail, and delegate, delegate, delegate. The invitations make it very clear that everyone is expected to help, and it was obvious that some people's help started months ago. It definitely helps that C & C have been doing this sort of thing together for ~20 years. And the other person who from what I could see was most involved, M, is a friend of C₁ since high-school; at one point someone in the kitchen commented that they sound like an old married couple, and they clearly work together with that level of efficiency.

Most of us helped by showing up and saying "what can I do?", but it looked to me like about a third of the guests had pre-assigned responsibilities. All the dishes were prepared and cooked there, but I'd say roughly half of were the responsibility of one of the guests, rather than the hosts. My own helping was ad-hoc, but in addition to washing a lot of dishes, I preped the sausage skewers and peeled and washed the water chestnuts. I do have restaurant kitchen experience, and with one exception did not get a sense that anyone else, including the hosts, did. Nonetheless, everything ran quite smoothely.

They do have an excellent kitchen — not especially large, but extremely well laid-out. It's at one end of the house, with entrances on either side and a large peninsula in the middle, where the cooktop is. While I don't think the number ever actually got that large, there was enough room that eight people could have been actively doing something without significantly getting in one-another's way. Here's a rough sketch of the layout:



One of the best non-food parts of the meal was the pacing. We were at table for something like five hours, but at no point did I feel impatient for the next course. (We were of course not actually sitting for five unbroken hours; we were all up and down a good deal between courses.) I imagine the staggered schedule allowed the final cooking of dishes to be done more linearly than in parallel, as would be necessary in a restaurant.

[jered]

Interesting. I'm not sure I'd be able to pull that off in my kitchen, and I think I have significantly more space. I suppose it's a matter of practice. Hm... you haven't seen the kitchen yet, have you? We'll do a brunch before the end of the year, now that things are cleaned up for Thanksgiving.

[jered]

You know, you could have just told me, "Walk across your office and ask..." :-)

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

The invitation said

***THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT*** 
Please, please please don't tell people who aren't invited about the
event since I don't like ending up in the awkward situation of having
people coming up to me and asking me if they can come.

I didn't think I was any less obliged to honor that request just because the event has passed.