As we self isolate (my son has mild, very mild Covid) I am cheering myself up with happy thoughts. What would be the perfect meal? What would I serve with it?
I think there should be rules. The meal should be four courses plus cheese. Apart from the bread and cheese, everything has to be something you have cooked in the past. And the wine….it has to be in your cellar, although you can also have already paid for prearrivals.
Still working mine out, but am curious what you will come out with.
Was just having this convo with my wife last night. We were headed to Miami today to have a very traditional Cuban dinner with family.
Roast pork (Lechon Asado)
Yucca
Fried plantains
Black beans and rice.
This is my perfect dinner. Yes I can and often do fancy, but this is classic feel-good, down home cooking.
In this meal, even wine is secondary to me. I will normally open a higher-acid red, like a Chinon. Works well with the pork fat. Champagne wins as well.
And sadly, like you, my son just tested positive so we just cancelled the trip. Ugh. Now we are doing stone crab claws at the beach. That could be my wife’s fave.
Mine would be eating at the Waffle House with the late great Anthony Bourdain and Julia Child. Miles would bring a 1961 Chateau Latour that we would all enjoy out of red solo cups.
This is basically a perfect meal for me too (we are doing lechón en La caja china for Christmas Eve con maduros y mojo).
The ‘61 Latour was corked, so he brought the Cheval Blanc instead 
When do you not open with a red Loire? ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
(Sorry to hear about your son and the cancellation of your trip.)
You said something I cooked myself, so leaving out things only Betsy does, so simpler food
oysters, ramp mignonette, 1989 Luneau Papin Ld’Or
butter poached lobster,potatoes, beet 2000 Taittinger Comtes Rose
duck breast, mushrooms 1999 Dujac Combottes
rack of lamb.mustard crust, lentils 1983 Cheval Blanc
cheese 1989 Huet Constance
I’ll have to do a genetic check on your Cuban aspirations… Something doesn’t compute amigo.
Feliz Noche buena.
We’ll cook a Flannery’s Tenderloin with mangu and tostones.
Champagne and some Gagnard Chassagne for us. Maybe a glass of my son’s birth year port to finish with a real CUBAN cigar.
Un abrazo.
Lol, every other day?
Sorry to hear about the positive test results, but suspect the BB will be filled with threads starting with “so we’re positive”.
Really fun post idea.
Without going into too thought, I’m going to say: Company & atmosphere matters more, so nothing too fancy or labour intensive.
A pre-dinner Negroni with some nuts/ bar snacks, while cooking/ chatting.
Gougeres & cold seafood platter/tower with a bottle of Comtes, Vilmart or Peters - still probably standing around or casually seated around the island.
Seared duck magret w. cherry gastrique, frites & roasted veg with a Drouhin Petit Monts or Dujac Malconsorts.
Will probably skip a dessert & since I usually prefer cheeses, will skip port but will open something sweet - Gunderloch Beerenauslese or a Sauternes. For cheese - a raw milk Epoisses or Riopelle d’Isle & maybe a Compte or aged beemster.
Tequila cured gravlax on pumpernickel bread.
Burrata with tomatoes, basil and a great Tuscan olive oil
Taittinger Comtes 1995
Raviola with an egg yoke on a bed of ricotta and a sage butter sauce with scattered white truffles
Sobrero Barolo 1971
Roast prime rib of beef and Yorkshire pudding roast potatoes and garlicky spinach
Latour 1990
Cheese course Rogue Blue and Pheasant Ridge cheddar washed down with a Dow 1970
You said 4 courses plus cheese!
Sorry, fixed
Seared Salmon Nigiri
Wagyu Nigiri with sliced fried garlic
Buttered poached scallop nigiri
Pizza Neo-Neapolitan style with burrata and ricotta
2006 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart Magnum
If I get one more course dessert course will be chocolate lava cake.
As a point of reference, Thomas Keller (French Laundry) was quoted as saying that his ultimate meal was roast chicken with Ridge Lytton Zin.
How about D’Artagnan cassoulet and Chave (a good vintage)?
I’m coming to your house! That sounds like a wonderful meal. Merry Christmas!
This reminds me of the David Chang Podcast where they did a holiday meal draft.
Probably not my perfect meal but some things I would feel like having today.
Apéro: Stuffed clams and mini crab cakes + Savart Extra-Brut l’Année 2011
1st course: Black cod, brown butter, fried capers, celeriac puree + 2017 Anselmo Mendes Parcela Única
2nd course: Pan-fried quails, foie gras, grapes, quail jus, bitter grape caramel + Domaine Macle Château Chalon 2012
3rd course: Slow-cooked lamb shoulder, tomates confites, flageolets + Zymé Oz 2004
Cheeses: too many to list but, Ossau-Iraty, Valencay, Roquefort, Beaufort and Gruyère de grotte always work. No wine would work with all of those.
Finish the meal on an Etienne Brana Eau-de-vie de framboise
No dessert. I’m not big on desserts.
I’m not sure I have a “perfect meal”. My wants change day by day.
My plan for Christmas 2022, which will be the first we spend in France, is:
1960s Krug Private Cuvée in magnum with smoked salmon
1959 La Mission Haut Brion in magnum with a beef rib roast
1962 Coutet with cheese and dessert
Should have happened this year, but we had to head back to the USA to collect a French visa.