Fine Food for Five Years

Sometimes, life makes it hard to take the time to slow down and carefully consider our wine. Tina and I recently celebrated our fifth year together, and we decided to make a special, if a bit busy, evening of it.

We started off at Bar Carrera, a small wine and tapas place, for a quick aperitif. My cousin was in town for the day, so we agreed to meet up for a drink after work on a warm Friday evening. With just a few minutes together, Tina scanned the menu for something crisp and simple, but we definitely spent more time chatting than we did savoring our wine. Before long, we had to gather our things and run off to our dinner reservations.

Dinner was at a wonderful restaurant, Market Table, in New York’s Greenwich Village. A simple space, with large windows; from the street it didn’t look like much. But as noted on their website, the quality of their farm fresh ingredients made the evening. Usually, I order something that I could never make at home, but the free range chicken breast struck a chord with me. It’s amazing how juicy a fresh chicken is compared to what comes out of the grocery store. I chose a 2010 Grüner Veltliner from Schloss Gobelsburg to go along with it, and the wine proved a good match. The lemony, acidic notes cut through the richness of the meat. It may have paired better with a fish course, but I have no complaints. Tina decided it was an evening for enjoyment, not work, so she chose to drink her rose´ in peace, and not share her thoughts.

For dessert we splurged on a glass of Sauternes, and pair with the dessert special. The pound cake with fresh strawberries was delightfully light and refreshing, but was no match for the drink. The Sauternes region in French produces a very powerful white wine, created when the grapes are left out to dry and even mildew. It’s typically sweet but also dark and rich. As we will always argue, there is no wrong pairing. Even though the sweet fruitiness of the wine was dessert enough by itself, we also enjoyed the strawberry pound cake.

With after dinner plans, we didn’t have much time to savor our dinner, but I still vote it as one of the best tasting meals we’ve had to date. I think we will have to try Market Table again on a more casual evening--hopefully before our 10th anniversary.