Last night Nellie, T-Bone and I partook of a Santé Wine Festival event at Pangaea, a restaurant near where we live. It was sponsored by Lungarotti wines, and hosted by a former sommelier who now works for the winery. The idea was that the chef would make dishes to match each wine course for the dozen or so tables in attendance.

As soon as we sat down our server poured a 2004 pinot grigio; as we were waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive they just kept pouring the wine and bringing appetizers: grilled quail with plum sauce, truffle quiche, a seared tuna amuse bouche, and a shell containing scrambled egg and caviar. I loved the quail, skipped the quiche, didn’t mind the tuna and cautiously tested the caviar. I’d not tried it before, and I can’t say I’d spend a small fortune on it, but it was interesting.

Next came two appetizers: rabbit stuffed with wild leek and morels, paired with a 2004 torre di giano (both of which I liked a lot), then fiddlehead risotto with grape tomatoes paired with a 2002 cabernet sauvignon…also both good. The main course was a lamb shank with lingot beans (whatever those are), truffles and vegetables — which I thought was just okay — with two wines: a 2002 rubesco and a 2000 rubesco riserva. It all ended with a raspberry Bavaroise (like mousse sandwiched between a thin shortcake and a biscuit, I guess) with poached rhubarb and fresh berries, paired with a 2001 dulcis. I liked this a lot more than Nellie, who gave me most of hers, but it was all so sweet that I felt a little sick. But it was nothing a little water splashed on my face couldn’t fix.

The funniest part of the evening was when T-Bone’s social instincts took over and she made friends with a nearby table. While the rest of the room emptied out we all turned around and chatted with the two couples, probably for half an hour or more. I think T-Bone knew their life stories by the end.

It was a pretty great deal, really, since the tax and tip was included, and we had a great deal of wine to go along with our food. We also found out that Lungarotti makes some pretty decent wine for some pretty low prices, so Nellie could be looking for it on her next trip to the LCBO. Which was the point, I suppose.

.:.

For the first time in a few years, the films we saw at Hot Docs didn’t win any awards.* Martyr Street, which we had on our short list but didn’t end up picking, won the best documentary award; Mystic Ball (which I think T-Bone went to see this weekend) won the special jury prize.

*unless, of course, one of them wins the audience award, which will be announced tomorrow

.:.

Ever see the movie Cop Land (imdb | rotten tomatoes)? It’s not bad. Nellie and I saw it eight or nine years ago, just after she moved here, and I remember being severely annoyed with the old woman behind us who exclaimed “Oh my! Oh dear! Tsk tsk!” every time anyone swore or fired a gun.

Anyway, it was on IFC last week and I tifauxed it just for kicks. I forgot how many good actors were in it: Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Peter Berg, Janeane Garofalo, Robert Patrick, Michael Rapaport, Annabella Sciorra, Cathy Moriarty and John Spencer, with Edie Falco and Deborah Harry in bit parts. Even Sylvester Stallone, who stars in it, is pretty good, and you can’t say that very often. If you skipped it ’cause it looked like another dumb Stallone cop movie, give it another chance.

.:.

[tags]santé, pangaea, lungarotti, hot docs, martyr street[/tags]