The Bubbo wrote:
> Sheldon wrote:
> >
> > The Bubbo wrote:
> >> This afternoon I finally settled my Christmas dinner menu, which is good,
> >> since it's tomorrow.
> >> I'll have a small cheese plate set up in the living room for nibbling while
> I
> >> am in the kitchen. Mirableu sheep's milk blue, Humboldt Fog chevre and an
> aged
> >> irish cow's milk cheddar. There will be mixed olives, sweet and spicy
> walnuts
> >> and this sour cherry/lemon balm conserve I picked up not too long ago for a
> >> different dinner. I have a rosemary olive oil loaf and a multigrain loaf.
> >>
> >> Salad will be greens with thin slices of roasted sweet potato, pears,
> walnuts
> >> and a bit of the mirableu along with a champaign vinaigrette.
> >>
> >> Dinner is bouillabaisse, but with crab instead of lobster, i just don't
> have
> >> the time or the tools to futz with lobster.
> >>
> >> Dessert is a gingerbread trifle with gingered pears, apples and dates and
> >> spiced whipped cream.
> >
> > I just can't understand your choice of a cheese appetizer lead in for
> > fish stew, that's actually pretty awful... cheese is so cloyingly
> > lingering, no one will really enjoy your bouillabaisse... the mere
> > thought of bouillabaisse and cheese makes me wanna puke. I would have
> > choosen something acid, marinated veggies (a la three bean salad
> > style), and egg salad on toast points topped w/salmon caviar is a good
> > prelude for a seafood main course. So where's your bouillabaisse
> > recipe... I hope it's the real deal and not one of those fercocktah no
> > account red guinea versions, blech! People slap down a cheese platter
> > for two reasons, they're lazy and they don't have what to think... if
> > you wanna do lazy for fish then do the assorted nut bowl, same calories
> > (same cost too) but not so lingering (and no fercocktah peanuts unless
> > it's a polka game). I'd do a big bowl of pistachios and another of
> > cashews.
> >
> > Far and away, the best on the planet: http://www.zenobianut.com
> >
>
> I put out the cheese plate because we like the cheese plate and there's enough
> time and wine between cheese and dinner that palates should clear enough. I
> occasionally run across rules like "don't serve cheese with fish" and stuff
> like that. I figure they make a nice enough guideline but it's my house and my
> dinner and I serve what my guests and I enjoy, we are not beholden to anyone
> else's rules.

Seems you and your guests have taste in ass disease, and definitely not
into hospitality either.

> The bouillabaisse is the from the New York Times cookbook, I don't have any
> real frame of reference when it comes to authenticity, I found probably a half
> dozen very different recipes all claming to be 'authentic'. Finally, I just
> decided to get the recipe that my mom used over the years, it's the recipe I
> like. I'll post it later when I have time, it's a fairly simple recipe, not
> complicated at all.

You'd know it it were red or white, strange you don't. And you'd at
least know the basic ingredients, amounts are unnecessary. Odd. With
cheese you're better off with the red, kinda like anchovy pizza.

> I'll also post the recipe for the soup I am making for David, he's vegetarian
> and does not want bouillabaisse.

What will David have while everyone is nibbling cheese, tofu? The
stench of your fish will probably make him wretch.