Thursday night we switched things up a little and broke free from having wine with dinner. No, not water for us (well, not only water - we do drink plenty of that). Beer for a change, and when I say "beer", I am most adamantly not speaking of a can or two of Bud. Then again, I know so little about beer that you could pour me a glass of Bud, tell me it's a fine Belgian or microbrew, and listen to me get all beer-bouquet florid talking about it. Happily, I don't believe the restaurant tried any tricks like that.
We went with FXK to
Cafe Matou.
Poor Kim, having to go to a lengthy dinner at
the Morales Room at Frontera instead. Actually, although I love Frontera immensely, I think we may have had a more interesting time of it. Cafe Matou is a restaurant we'd been curious to try but never gotten around to, after all. The people assembled there seemed mostly to be regulars, but we weren't bothered not to receive quite so much attention.
FXK was there when we arrived, and all the diners for this first beer-pairing dinner were given a glass of
Pyramid Apricot Weizen from Portland, OR, to start with.
Nice start - lovely fruity nose (see, here's the florid language) but not candy-sweet on the tongue. Light, in fact, and quite good.
First course: casse-croute à la meli-mélo (grilled bread with three relishes – roasted peppers, black olive tapenade, cremini mushroom with celery and dill).
This was paired with
Stiegl Pils from Salzburg, Austria. Fine enough. Nothing outstanding. Nice tapenade. The mushrooms were, well, mushrooms, and as such, I barely ate them. None of us finished the beer. It was light in colour, and FXK judged it bland and inoffensive. I found it had a deep note of something caramelized with an edge of bitterness. Not bad, but I wasn't willing to feel tipsy from drinking too much of it.
Second round: salade de tomates au fromage bleu d’Auvergne et aux amandes (heirloom tomato salad with Auvergne blue cheese and toasted almonds).
This was simple and lovely. Beautiful tomatoes with each of us having different colour combinations. The cheese was great as well, and the whole of it paired well with the
St. Bernardus Bier Blanche Witbier from Watou, Belgium.
Third course: crevettes et moules au cidre (shrimp and mussels steamed in hard cider).
Very very tasty, wonderfully fragrant. The shellfish was not at all overcooked - a worry I have when large groups are involved. The resulting sauce based on the cider was excellent, definitely calling for the spoon provided. And while neither FXK nor Conrad were taken with the glass of
Etienne Dupont Cidre Bouché Brut de Normandie from Victot-Pontfol, France, I liked the floral yeastiness of its scent and the sweetness in the mouth. I glad had a little more when they brought it around.
Fourth course: porc grillé au jus et au confit d’oignon rouge au vinaigre rouge (grilled pork loin with pork jus and red onion-red wine vinegar compote).
This was handsomely plated and tasted quite good - I liked the mix of juices from the compote with the pork jus - but I couldn't help but think that the pork might have been a little more tender. The beer was a deep golden brown
Gouden Carolus Ambrio from Mechelen, Belgium. It had real body and some sweetness, and though I liked it, I didn't feel manly enough to drink the full glass. Or something like that.
Dessert: fraises, framboises, et figues à la gasconne (fresh strawberries, raspberries, and figs with spice lace cookie and rhubarb ice cream).
This may have bene th ebest pairing in a way, though FXK made a good counterpoint. The
Floris Framboise, a raspberry beer (though not a true lambic) from Melle, Belgium, was almost like candy by itself, but its flavour blended marvelously with the rhubarb ice cream. FXK suggested that contrast might have been better so that the flavours would complement each other in their dissimilarity, and I think it's a good point. However, not one of us left behind a lick of ice cream.
All in all, a successful evening. Cafe Matou also has wine tasting dinners on a regular basis, and if Thursday night is any indication, then the restaurant deserves more of our business just as we owe it to ourselves to explore some of the intriguing pairings they're likely to devise.
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