For those of you who did not make it to Meat Fest II/Rose Round Up, this post is for you--that is, this post is intended to make you feel bad about being you and the bad choices you made and, hopefully, encourage you to re-think your bad choices as we turn our sights to Meat Fest III and which ever varietal we decide to compare and contrast in the wine portion of the festivity.
Before getting to the food, let's look at the Rose Round-up. Some of you might remember the Gewurztraminer Getdown of 2009, though it is likely that none of you remember (with any precision that is) the results of said event. Sure, the delightful and delicious Gehringer Brothers Schonburger Gewurztraminer stood steady at or near the top--but that's a no brainer. Of course Gehringer Brothers Schonburger Gewurztraminer stood steady at or near the top. But certainly there were other contenders, victors and disappointers. When isn't there a disappointer in the group?
In light of this statistical imprecision, this year, steps were taken to insure thorough and precise data collection for open distribution and equal utility for all:
As you can see from the above chart, testing was thorough and extensive. (Click on image to enlarge.)
To insure quality data collection, the wines were also carefully presented in a random fashion so as not to influence perceptions by "shelf location."
Here is the list of participants:
Gazela (product of Portugal)
See Ya Later Nelly 2009
Road 13 Honest John's 2009 rose
Dunham Frose rose 2009
Dirty Laundry Hush 2009
Quails Gate rose 2009
Silkscarf 2008 shiraz saignee
Tinhorn Creek oldfield series 2bench rose 2009
Marques de Caceres 2009 rioja (Spain)
Domaine Clair Dau Rose de Marsannay Louis Jadot 2008
Jackson Triggs unity white merlot
Chat-en-Oeuf 2009 (france)
The View Distraction 2009
Emeri pink Moscato (south eastern australia)
Quinta Ferreira rose 2009
Le Vieux Pin Vaila 2009
Pascual Toso Malbec rose 2009 (argentina)
Seven Stones Speaking Rock 2009 pinot rose
Strut Risque rose 2008 (half bottle remains)
Arrowleaf Red Reather rose 2008 (half bottle remains)
Jackson Triggs 2008 Proprietors Reserve rose
Henkell rose
Gray Monk 2008 Rotberger
La Vieille Ferme Recolte 2009
A few things caught my attention.
1. Seven Stones won the gold, Tinhorn the silver and LVP Viala, Marques de Caceres, Road 13 and Dunham Froese tied for bronze.
2. There were four bottles of road 13's Rose and 3 bottles of Qunita Fererria, with people lunging for the '08
3. The Dunham and Froese had the most votes in the #2 colum "wouldn't pass it up" with seven votes, while the most anyone else got was two. A bronze in the "excellent" class, a gold in the "wouldn't pass up" class.
4. The wine that got the most "nice try" votes was a rose made from Malbec grapes.
The remaining wine from the evening was combined and inoculated with organic cider vinegar with the intent of making a red/rose wine vinegar from the event. Hopefully it can mother the wines of the next event!
Now on to Meat Fest:
The obvious place to start is with the pig as it is from the pig that so much radiated...
...Like bacon caramel
...and bacon popcorn peanut pop on a stick what nots
...don't forget blood thickened pasta with pig tails.
Of course there was beef. And while the beef was a little less conspicuous than the pork, it was staggeringly good. Like tripe in jelly.
UNBELIEVEABLE! Can someone remind me again why tripe-in-jelly isn't on at least one charcuterie plate here in the valley? Oh, and don't give me that ol' "people don't eat tripe and we won't be able to sell it and make money" line of nonsense--that's not a suitable answer for anything--least of all around here.
Then there was Okanagan's Finest Angus Beef heart sashimi marinated in the new, unreleased Note Bene (and a pair of white creepers no less!)
Said another way, local cows, fed local wine at a local feed lot, processed (somewhat less) locally, marinated in local wine, fed to people of that locality.
TERROIR ALERT TERROIR ALERT!!! That spooky raw beef heart? A DEFINATIVE CULINARY EXPRESSION OF OKANAGAN TERROIR.
There was also a bit of tallow--for a while anyway, until disaster struck and tallow clogged the gas jets ending the fun and, for all intents and purposes, ruining Meat Fest. (winking face emoticon here.)
The rig was up and running long enough to deep fry some cheeseburger spring rolls (delicious) and a pepper construction featuring cream cheese stuffing, bacon wrapping and all around breading (delicious as well.)
In the "other" category there was bear sausage (yum!)
and elk (made into tacos) and salmon (lox) which sadly did not their photo taken.
Lastly, and clearly most importantly was the very beautiful and thoughtfully made Meat Fest II cake--a cake for the ages that we hold dear to our hearts and will remember and cherish for all times by everyone.
There was also a wonderful pumpkin cheese cake that was hidden from the guests so it could be savoured in private.
I know I've left things out...that's what the comments section is for.
A smashing success all in all. A big thank you to everyone who came, brought and/or cooked.
Yes, the tripe was the surprise winner in my books. Sooooooo good. I ate about 10 of those jellies on crackers and then walked around the party rubbing my belly with a smile on my face and meat fueled haze around my logic centers.
ReplyDeleteThanks to everyone who took part, mostly those who brought meat.
why only meat at meat fest?
ReplyDeletepoint: meat, is an animal, animals (usually the ones we consume, especially the ones that were consumed during meat fest) all eat VEGETABLES...or vegetation, or grains.
so why only meat? with out the above three products we would not be able to enjoy bacon caramels and baby piglets! damnit (added hurt word for emphasis)