I noticed many unwise eaters scarfing down our first course of quail roasted with honey and harissa, not pacing themselves. Amateurs. The chilled pinot noir it came with was immensely refreshing.
I knew Chef Tony’s dal for our third course would be good, but it came with tender flaky rabbit on top, accompanied by a big, bold and spicy Georgian wine. Wow.
Four courses in, we got to the Punjabi salmon (Salmon Bones for the Liberians). Every plate got both salmon bones and salmon, in a spicy sauce of garlic, chile, tomatoes and ginger, served with basmati. I sucked all the salmon off those bones like I was home in Monrovia, then went hunting on our friend Richard’s plate but my sis had already swiped his bones. He said he enjoyed his deboned salmon. Sigh.
By the time we got to the roast saddleback, people were waving their white napkins in surrender; we had been eating for three hours. We made it through the next course — of strawberries with cinnamon and black pepper and chocolate mousse — but just barely. I noticed the three teens in our group, who had been sneaking sips of wine all evening, quaffing down the sweet pellegrino passito dessert wine with gusto.
The last two courses were cheeses with oat cakes, paired with fine ruby port, and Tony’s tea cakes, but they simply could not be eaten because it was now midnight and our stomachs were toppling over those tartan tights and busting out of those cocktail dresses, so Chef Tony put them aside for us to eat later in our week at Stucktaymore.