Birthday Parties For Boomers
Wednesday 3 October 2007 by Dr Maytel
On Sunday we cooked my pops a special birthday dinner. He tunred 57 today. Happy Birthday Pops. We were going to take him out to a fancy schmancy hotel restaurant but I then realised that given that I am married to one of Bangkok's finest chefs and master of all things sous vide, we decided to make a little party at home instead.
Its pretty easy to please a baby boomer, you just have to pull out as many old school cordon bleu stops as you can and dose them thoroughly in wine. Set the table properly to add extra atmosphere. I even ironed napkins.
To start Chef prepared a platter of smoked salmon (which Dad had actually bought back from New Zealand...he left all his clothes in New Zealand and arrived back with an entire suitcase of our national bread vogels, fruit and salmon) with accoutrements...it actually goes really well with dill and kewpie BTW
Main course was an enormous wagyu steak with enormous slices of foie gras on top, dosed in tarragon, prune eau de vie and green pepper corns, served with baby potatoes and brocollini. The first time I had ever seen anyone eat such a thing was Christmas in Cambodia, when Chef J.LO smothered his celebratory steak with sous vide foie gras and proceeded to giggle the entire time he ate it. It seemed to have the same effect on my father....I personally couldn't finish mine, as it was far too rich.
Noticeably absent from our dinner was my step mother, who doesn't eat beef due to a long standing Chinese belief that the evil father of Guan Yin (Goddess of Mercy) was supposedly reincarnated as a cow. Like a small number of Chinese she wont eat beef out of respect for the Goddess. She also doesn't drink much or eat a lot of cheese.
Its pretty easy to please a baby boomer, you just have to pull out as many old school cordon bleu stops as you can and dose them thoroughly in wine. Set the table properly to add extra atmosphere. I even ironed napkins.
To start Chef prepared a platter of smoked salmon (which Dad had actually bought back from New Zealand...he left all his clothes in New Zealand and arrived back with an entire suitcase of our national bread vogels, fruit and salmon) with accoutrements...it actually goes really well with dill and kewpie BTW
Main course was an enormous wagyu steak with enormous slices of foie gras on top, dosed in tarragon, prune eau de vie and green pepper corns, served with baby potatoes and brocollini. The first time I had ever seen anyone eat such a thing was Christmas in Cambodia, when Chef J.LO smothered his celebratory steak with sous vide foie gras and proceeded to giggle the entire time he ate it. It seemed to have the same effect on my father....I personally couldn't finish mine, as it was far too rich.
Noticeably absent from our dinner was my step mother, who doesn't eat beef due to a long standing Chinese belief that the evil father of Guan Yin (Goddess of Mercy) was supposedly reincarnated as a cow. Like a small number of Chinese she wont eat beef out of respect for the Goddess. She also doesn't drink much or eat a lot of cheese.
Fantastic! The wagyu is making my mouth water. Poor mother-in-law. Missing out big time there lady.
I get the feeling that someone is channeling the Galloping Gourmet.