Floggers’ Dinner 2006: Sage the Restaurant, 26th Aug 2006
1 Comments Published by andrea on Saturday, August 26, 2006 at 12:44 AM.
[above: photo mosaic courtesy of Ivan from Recent Runes]With guests known by chic, mysterious names like Umami, Ice Blue Orb, and Cocotte Rouge, and a long table lined with boxes of Kasumi knives (a sponsored gift), the Floggers’ Dinner at Sage could have been mistaken for a gathering of not-so-discreet assassins. But the only thing that was “killer” at the restaurant that evening was the food. In particular, the starter courses were what I would classify as “I’ve died and gone to heaven” good.
A Brilliant Start and Brilliant Starters
- Escargot, Chestnut & Oxtail Consomme
After initial introductions, the natural camaraderie and easy chatter that emerged amongst the guests were not surprising, given our common passion for food. Even though some of us were new to the group, there was a general sense of togetherness, like an urban tribe with shared points of reference, lingo and rituals centered on food and food blogging. Where else would you find people equally eager to talk about food at other places while dining at one place? Where else would everyone be following the “take photo before consumption” rule?
[Photo courtesy of Colin from Only Slightly Pretentious Food.]
Art in a Cup: Chestnut mousseline with oxtail consumme and truffle oil
The highlight of the 5-course meal was definitely the two starter dishes of Chestnut Oxtail Consomme and Escargot. Each a juxtaposition of complimentary taste and texture, these were perfect examples of top-notch creative cooking, from inventive choice of ingredients to preparation method to presentation style.
[Photos - bottom left and right - courtesy of Ivan from Recent Runes who takes great macro shots.]
Gastronomic Masterpiece: Fricassee of Burgundy escargot with lentil du puy and field mushrooms, poached egg and Italian parsely foam
The Main Experience
- Sea Bass, Beef Short Ribs
Being highly dependent on Google when it comes to researching new dining venues, I’d come across the blogs of most of the floggers present. The best part about dinner was being able to meet these like-minded folks in person, and finding out that they are as warm, friendly and sincere as they come across in their blogs.
Regrettably, some of the guests were seated too far away from me, and I didn’t have the chance to get to know them better during the sit-down dinner. I would have liked to...
- Ask Umami how her blog name came about. [Before the dinner, I thought she was Japanese!]
- Confess to Chubby Hubby that I'd always wondered if he was actually chubby. [Turns out he's a standard-issue, regular-sized hubby]
- Find out if Joone of Nibble & Scribble is a food writer in real life. [She writes really well on the "technical" aspects of food tasting.]
[Photo courtesy of The Skinny Epicurean.]
The main courses were baked fillet of sea bass topped with tiger prawn mousse, braised fennel and lemon-basil emulsion and beef short-ribs braised in red wine topped with slices of foie gras and glazed root vegetables and a mousseline of butternut pumpkin.
The beef was succulent and tender, with the sweet butternut pumpkin mousseline nicely balancing the savoriness of beef. The only let-down of the night was the fillet, which suffered from all the symptoms of having been overcooked. [Let's just say that McDonalds' fillet-o-fish tastes far superior to this.]
A Sweet Ending
- Panna Cotta
[Photo courtesy of Kitchen Crazy Daffy.]
At the end of the day, Colin, the event's organiser did a fantastic job. Everyone really had a good time, and thoroughly enjoyed the meal.
Read about how the other dinner guests experienced the event, and find out more about the fabulous sponsored gifts at their blogs:
Cheateat
Chubby Hubby
CindyHeartLife
Cocotte Rouge
Dim Sum Dolly
Food Recent Runes
Haute Stuff
Ice Blue Orb
Nibble & Scribble
Kitchen Crazy Daffy
Lavender Cupcaker
Only Slightly Pretentious Food
Skinny Epicurean
SooksFoodNotes
Umami
flattered to be considered "regular-sized". ;-)