Gourmet dinner party

Well the gourmet dinner party was last night.   It works like this: the group takes it in turn to host a meal for around 12 people.  The host/hostess decide on the menu and then assign a dish to each of the guests.   A student is hired to clear up in the kitchen.   So far so good!

The hostess of this particular evening decided on a 'healthy' meal.  My dish was fauxtatoes.   Yes that's not a spelling mistake!   It's false mashed potato, made from cauliflower, onion, garlic and coconut butter.  I followed the recipe faithfully but with misgivings!  Mashed cauliflower - lovely.  But coconut butter?  It tasted OK, but only just.

We arrive at the house.  Built in 1935, the first house to be built south of the university (and therefore on open ground)  and so designated an historic house.  It's lovely.  Boarded floors, walls and ceilings all covered with paintings and art from around the world.   Painted ceilings too.  A riot of colour and visual excitement.  He is a professor in Architecture and is also a sculptor/woodcarver.  He's undertaken some interesting commissions!  The garden is a tropical jungle with bamboo and grasses, exotic leaved plants, cacti, a pond and running water.  Mozart is played through speakers around the garden.  We have champagne cocktails (kir royale) and chips and dips (the appetisers). 

Then it gets a bit strange.  The group which meets about 4 or 5 times a year, don't appear to know each other that well.   Conversation is slow to get going.  Despite the fact that they all have connections to the university, they seem an oddly assorted group and not that friendly with each other.  The chat is impersonal and generalised.   We go into dinner.  The person responsible has been in the kitchen heating up the soup.  By the time the 14th person gets theirs it is tepid.  Mushroom and tarragon with a large piece of tarragon in the bottom of the bowl which gets in the way of chasing the small amount of soup round the bowl.   Peter liked the soup.   I thought it tasted rather metallic. 

Then the salad, served as a separate course.  Kale (raw), quinoa, tangerine and almonds.  It was good.  A little Japanese, sea-weedy in flavour.  Several people left most of theirs. 

Main course next.  Chicken breast stuffed with figs, spinach and prunes in a tomato sauce with ginger, my faux potato and some tiny carrots.  The lady who brought the carrots, the hostess and I are in the kitchen serving.  The hostess removes two huge trays of chicken from the oven and then proceeds to cut each piece in half - slowly.  When a piece of chicken is on the plate she sprinkles coriander and then passes it to me for a dollop of the white stuff and I also serve the carrots as their owner is so diminutive that she cannot reach the counter comfortably.   She is sweet and twinkly, but also a little shaky.  She sprinkles more coriander on the carrots and some of it falls to the floor each time.   The plates are cold and by the time the three of us have danced round each other and little lady has wandered round the dining table with 14 plates of food, it's also a little cold.  Never mind, we all tuck in.  The chicken also tastes metallic to me but it's tender and moist.  The man next to me takes one mouthful of everything and puts his knife and fork down!!!  Several people also make very little inroad into their gourmet dinner and it ends up in the bin!  Peter and I clear our plates (war babies that we are)!   The conversation however, is warming up.  Everyone gets very heated about a student vote to prevent student dues from being used for Gay and Lesbian groups on campus.  They roll their eyes in despair about the religious right.  There are some talkative and humorous people round the table and they have to work hard to make up for the silent ones.   Dessert is strawberry tart with cream (or yoghurt).  Eyes light up!  The yoghurt doesn't get many takers.  One woman declares her body is in shock from eating so much healthy food!   

The host asks us how much we spent, does the maths and we pay up the difference.  At about 10.00 we all say goodbye and leave.  A strange but enjoyable experience!