In my opinion, good food and great company can only be rivaled by a deluge of good food with great company.
Which is why M’s Christmas feast last night is something I really enjoyed, and would like to tell you about.
M is one of those blessed people who likes, and even more importantly, can combine entertainment, graciousness, cooking and interesting guests under one roof. And I’m not necessarily talking about elegant affairs–this can happen over grassy university grounds, while eating street food or what-have-you. Since she’s based in another part of the world, these gatherings are more of an annual or a bi-annual affair.
Dress code was, as usual, liberal. That meant that one could come in PJs and still be confident of a warm welcome. I haven’t actually seen anybody do that but the unpredictability is part of the excitement. It also makes sense since the guests were all alumni from the same university, and it is a known adage at our campus that people dress to self-express.
I came bearing the requisite bottle to the hostess, of course. And after getting acquainted with the rest of the pack and finding my place on the table, I wholeheartedly threw formality out of the window and dug in to the hors d’oeuvres.
Good thing conversation flowed as smoothly as the champagne we were drinking, because I was too engrossed with taking pictures and sampling the food to contribute intelligently to the discussion. 
I was not too much of a plebeian though, to not notice that food was in Abundance and we were given carte blanche over the wine bottles. I stopped counting after we consumed the fourth bottle–and we were just midway through dinner!
To be honest, my tongue that night treated the event like one big degustation. So it was the wine that left a lasting impression on me. But I only realized this on hindsight and did not track the sequence of the bottles that were poured on our glasses.
In general though, the dishes on the menu blended well together. I could eat any of the canapes with the any of the main dishes or desserts (like-minded individuals that we guests are, we treated the three-course dinner as a one-course meal. LOL.) So I knew and very much appreciated that M spent a lot of effort on this.
Oh, and let’s not forget the unbelievably FUN game we had over the gifts! I’ll write more about that on the next post.
In the meantime, below is the menu of what we ate. Cheers!
M’s Dinner Menu
Cocktails and Appetizer
Champagne Brut served with Canape Quattro: Tomato and Basil Bruschetta, Smoked Salmon with Capers, Cheddar with Alfalfa Sprouts and Devilled Eggs
Main Course
White Wine served with Chicken roasted in Cream Cheese and Thyme, Spinach Lasagna and Lemon Sole in Noisette Sauce
Dessert and After-Dinner Game
Dessert Wine and Merlot served with Lemon Squares, Dulce de Leche Cake, Camembert and Seedless Grapes
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It involved a lot of soul-searching for me as well, because somewhere along the way the final decision of whom to cover fell completely on my lap. I was afraid that I may not be able to pull through with the restaurant I wanted.
xtine
