Our annual New Year’s Eve dinner with a small handful of friends commenced at 6 p.m. on December 31st with a matsutake and lardo pizza and copious amounts of champagne.
Through the several hours of the carefully planned and sourced meal, we would dine our way through seven courses (pizza not included), six or seven bottles of pinot noir and a magnum of Francis Ford Coppola-autographed 1980-something Neibaum-Coppola cabernet (you can’t keep that stuff forever), some French and Australian wines, a bit of mescal and more. A bit foggy as I write…
Here are some of the highlights. Happy New Year! And see if you can find the Monty Python joke somewhere in there…
The menu
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Course #1: “Fish & Flowers” — trio of seafood ceviche, fried sorrel, flower & herb salad, sea urchin whipped cream, sakura cod roe, rice cracker
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Plate lickers after the first course
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Course 2: “Foie Gracias” — foie gras ravioli, guava duck reduction, duck confit, masa iberico relleno
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The table
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Course 3: “Look What the Cat Dragged In” — black bass fillets & bones, Meyer lemon rice cakes, tomato confit, squid paint, volcanic salt
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Course 4: “Bye Bye Birdie” — crispy five spice quail, chestnut “sand”, sautéed chard, cinnamon sauce
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Course 5: “Meat I” — steamed pork belly packages, roast parsnip compote, Iberico pig crisp, fermented Napa cabbage, morcilla sauce
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Donnie is excited for his pork dish
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Course 6: “Meat II” — zabuton tiny steak, flageolet beans, matchstick potatoes, spiced pea shoots, wasabi butter
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Course 7: “Mr. Creosote” — sticky toffee pudding, sweet cream ice cream, bourbon whipped cream, wafer-thin mint
skinny girls & mayonnaise 
Jan 02, 2015 @ 00:12:32
didn’t want to post this in case it’s a sensitive issue but where were Ern and DEb? And Peri?
Jan 02, 2015 @ 00:17:40
Peri is a plate licker on the far right of that one photo. And I’m pretty sure it’s Deb’s hand rising up on the left in the toast shot. They were present and accounted for.
Jan 02, 2015 @ 00:37:54
Wafer thin! And happy 2015!
Jan 02, 2015 @ 00:41:43
You found it! 🙂 (And nobody popped.)
Jan 02, 2015 @ 01:26:09
Awesome as usual, Dude!! I had chicken noodle soup after surgery. Then I swung from the chandeliers. Hee hee.
Jan 02, 2015 @ 15:30:00
I think maybe I’ll just do chicken noodle soup next year. 😉 Glad you made it thru the surgery!! Bye bye ulcer!!! Hello New Year! xo
Jan 02, 2015 @ 09:04:18
“Copious amounts” of champagne and Coppola red sounds good enough, but the menu? Wow!
Jan 02, 2015 @ 17:54:11
That’s the dinner I’m talking about making it to one of these days! I swooned just reading the copy and looking at the photos!! Love to see plate lickers!! You are a master my friend!! Happy 2015 to you and yours!!!
Jan 02, 2015 @ 22:26:44
Anytime you come, my friend, we will commence just such a meal.
Jan 02, 2015 @ 20:58:04
Looks like a grand time!!! Happy New Year! Cheryl
Jan 02, 2015 @ 22:25:50
And to you Cheryl! Here’s to a great year of shared food experiences ahead!
Jan 04, 2015 @ 18:49:27
Foie Gracias?! Effin’ brilliant. Here’s to even more foie in 2015!
Jan 16, 2015 @ 16:46:10
I’m in California, remember — it all depends on YOU! 😉
Jan 09, 2015 @ 22:33:19
Happy New Year Sean! I am just getting caught up reading your blog…I love that you have added video!
Jan 16, 2015 @ 16:46:54
Hey Noel, Happy New Year! Hope to see you one of these days! I actually used a lot of video in the early blog days, and need to get back into it… Cheers mate. //s