I ate at the Buona Sera Restaurant while I was in NJ last week. The first night it was with co-workers and the second night with a customer.
I ordered a bottle of the 2003 Seghesio Zinfandel Sonoma County Sonoma and everyone enjoyed it so much that I ordered it the next night too. It was a Wine Spectator Smart Buy and it scored a 90. Everyone had a variety of dishes and it seemed to go well with all of them.
I had a bone-in rib-eye the first night, smothered in onions and olives in a port demi-glaze sauce, and a buffalo steak the second night with a portabello mushroom coated with gorgonzolla cheeze.
The most spectacular part of the meal was the dessert. I had pineapple sorbet which doesn't sound all that spectacular until you hear about how it was made and presented. They took a wedge of fresh pineapple and scooped out the fruit. They used the fruit in the sorbet mixture and then refilled the wedge. The whole thing was frozen before being served on a bed of whipped cream and drizzled with a raspberry sauce. It was incredible. My only regret was not having a dessert wine of some sort with it. I was there with work people and customers and nobody had any interest in a dessert wine so I skipped it.
They did the same thing with the other sorbets serving the coconut in half a shell, and the lemon or orange sorbets in a hollowed out fruit. It was a creative way to serve a delicious dessert.
Posted by bbarton at December 12, 2005 03:02 PMThat is a good zin. We also had that out a few weeks ago, and have a bottle in the cellar.
I'm intrgued by the rib-eye sauce. Olives is not something I would think of with a port demi-glaze. What kind of olives were they?
There's a culinary term for serving fruit sorbets in their own shell... something Italian I think, but I can't remember it.
Posted by: David on December 13, 2005 08:27 AMChristie - It definitely made the night for me!
David - I'm going to buy some next time I'm in the liquor store. The olives were the small kind that are pinkish/purple in color. It was also served on top of garlic mashed potatoes.
Posted by: Bob on December 13, 2005 09:04 AMDo I get the impression you're not a vegetarian, Bob? Or on a diet?? In all events" stick with the garlic mashed potatoes. Yum.
Posted by: grannyp on December 13, 2005 10:23 AMPleas explain to me the scoring system for wine -- I love wine but am relatively new to it, and everytime I read a wine guide I don't know what the scoring really means, since sometimes a "97" is rated lower than a "95", and sometimes vice versa ... etc etc ... Oh, and by the way I was at Carrabba's tonight and just ordered the house white ... yuck! Never again, I think it was Gallo ... ick.
Grannyp - I'm definitely none of the above. I don't eat like that very often or I'd really be in trouble. LOL
April - There are several wine rating systems with Wine Spectator (WS) and Wine Advocate (WA) being the two big players. Usually, the higher the score the costlier the bottle of wine. A higher score doesn't always mean it is a great wine. Much of it depends on your individual tastes and how you pair the wine.
There's a great article about wine on Wine Spectator's website:
http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Archives/Show_Article/0,,893,00.html
Posted by: Bob on December 13, 2005 09:53 PM
I love doing that. It's so cute!
Posted by: christie on December 13, 2005 06:07 AM