Do you fondue? We do and we did in a super-fun, lively and highly interactive dinner club experience. I’ll admit, at first I wasn’t sure how much room for creativity and playfulness this theme would allow. Fondue is fondue, right? Ours is a group that likes to surprise and delight each other with out-of-the-box interpretations of the theme, and how many ways can one fondue, after all?! Quite a few, as it turns out.
If our evening had a sub-theme it’d be “something-something Numbers Game”. Every course featured multiples upon multiples and the flexibility to create a customized, suit-your-own-tastebuds feast.
- 2 versions of the same cocktail – Cherry & Lemon Gilroys, featuring Kirschwasser liqueur, often served with fondue as a digestif, cutting through the cheese in one’s system allowing even more consumption [cut the cheese, yes]. Wine was consumed in multiples too (7! The tablecloth drank at least half a bottle; you’ll see below), a mix of dry French and Austrian white wines and a few tasty reds as well. (Ilise and Ann)
- 2 appetizer fondues – Cheese and Roasted Garlic Broth + multiple dippers including bread, salami, pickled vegetables, and shrimp + 2 post-fondue dipping sauces (Karen and Kathleen)
- 3 main course fondues – Bagna Cauda for multiple vegetables; Mushroom-Beef Broth and Chicken-Shallot Broth – to cook 3 meats (chicken, pork and beef) + 5 dipping sauces: Aïoli, Olive, Remoulade, Horseradish Cream & Teriyaki (Greg and Dan)
- Just 1 option for the dessert course – Mexican Hot Chocolate Fondue with freshly-made Churros (Ellyn). The multiples came into play because I could NOT stop eating these hot, sweet delights.
With two fondue pots merrily bubbling away during appetizers around the kitchen island, and three during the main course in D&G’s beautiful formal dining room, we diners were up and at ‘em, navigating the space, flitting between the pots, waving our little spears around. Platters of the raw materials – meats, shrimp, veggies, bread and pickles – were readily available from which we made our selections. Hunting and gathering in the modern age.
It’s entirely possible that the Dinner Club Diners may have burned off a calorie or two walking laps around the kitchen island and the dining room table to get to all the items of their choice. Speaking for myself, I usually just plop into a dining room chair at our gatherings and stay put all evening, so this felt quite virtuous, almost like exercise. Don’t worry, we won’t let this become a habit.
Because this evening was all about mixing and matching, dipping and dunking, moving and grooving, it only makes sense to tell the story with pictures and motion and music rather than with words. So let’s set the mood with an up-tempo tune by jazz great Les McCann and please enjoy a photo gallery of our evening. Click to embiggen the pix.
It’s entirely possible that the Dinner Club Diners may have burned off a calorie or two walking laps around the kitchen island and the dining room table to get to all the items of their choice. Speaking for myself, I usually just plop into a dining room chair at our gatherings and stay put all evening, so this felt quite virtuous, almost like exercise. Don’t worry, we won’t let this become a habit.
Because this evening was all about mixing and matching, dipping and dunking, moving and grooving, it only makes sense to tell the story with pictures and motion and music rather than with words. So let’s set the mood with an up-tempo tune by jazz great Les McCann and please enjoy a photo gallery of our evening. Click to embiggen the pix.
We ended the evening sated, a bit fuzzy around the edges (if not actually tipsy, okay pretty tipsy), and with a new appreciation for fondue of all stripes, be it cheesy, broth-based, chocolate, or hot pot style with oil (which was not served this evening, but is often mentioned as yet another way to do the ‘due).
Who do the fondue that you do so well? We do, and we hope you do too!
Who do the fondue that you do so well? We do, and we hope you do too!
One Year Ago in Supper Club:
Theme: Red Square Hosts: Greg and Dan
Menu:
Theme: Red Square Hosts: Greg and Dan
Menu:
- Drinks: Red Hot Shots; Beet Generation; Beet Cubed; Russian River wines – Ilise & Ann
- Appetizers: Beet Carpaccio over Caramelized Onions; Pickled Herring – Ellyn
- Main Course: Salmon Kulebyaka; Mtsvani Lobios Pkhali (Green Bean & Walnut Salad) – Greg & Dan
- Dessert: Red Velvet Cake Constructions – Kathleen & Karen
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