Berserkers,
Board members Jay Shampur, Jeff Wong, yours truly and Jay’s good friend Deborah gathered at Le Notre Bistro for a special event entitled “A Taste of Russia.” Owner-sommelier Sergeui Kourokhtine who is Russian by birth and was raised in France by a chef mother flew her in to teach his staff how to cook traditional Russian cuisine which they then gave their own upscale French flair. The result was a fantastic night of fine food and some great wine to go with it:
DUVAL-LEROY NV BRUT ROSE CHAMPAGNE – My second and final bottle of this sparkler. Soft bead in the body, a bready nose with hints of strawberry, strawberry and watermelon fruit flavor with a touch of lees and very high lemony acidity. Good starter.
LITTORAI 2013 SONOMA COAST PINOT NOIR – Strong sour cherry nose belies a sweet entry with flavors of cream, sour cherry, pencil lead, black raspberries, and some strong tannins still. This is obviously a bit young, but was still quite good.
CELESTINO PECCI 2010 BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO – A difference of opinion at the table as I rather enjoyed this but Jeff felt it wasn’t really showing anything and he has a lot more experience drinking Brunello than I do. I found roasted coffee and black currant in the nose and body, some smooth tannins and a nice medium body. Super smooth wine, was great paired with the verinikis.
FERREIRA 10 YEAR OLD WHITE PORTO – Burnished orange-brown in color. A little heat on the nose. Smooth and sweet caramel rancio flavors with a slight touch of orange peel, but just barely. A bit unexciting in that it was lacking in complexity. Jay was a lot more blunt, calling it boring.
And on to the accompanying food. This was especially a treat for me as my late grandmother on my father’s side was Romanian and I grew up with both Borscht and varenikis. Our amouse bouche was a pickled herring and foie gras parfait inspired by one of Serguei’s personal favorite restaurants, the White Rabbit in Moscow.
Next was a homemade Borscht soup served with a pair of cabbage and beef pirozhikis on the side. These are essentially the Russian version of turnovers made using bread dough and baked instead of fried.
Our second course was potato stuffed verinkis with pickled honey mushrooms and served in a mushroom consommé broth.
The mains were served in traditional Russian family style, all coming out at once to be shared together at the table. The first was a shish-kabob of yellowfin tuna loin.
Alongside this came some sous vide chicken and beef short rib served with a side of buckwheat kasha each.
Served on the side was a Georgian salad of torched tomatoes dressed with balsamic, basil, cilantro and pine nuts.
Our final dessert course was a pair of dessert cakes: a flourless chocolate “potato” and a Baba au Rhum.
A thank you to Serguei and chef Stephanie and her sous-chef for the fabulous evening. We look forward to our next visit.