After the wake, I was off to finish the weekend on a high note. Kat was taking me to a very cool foodie event at a loft on 28th St. The concept is terrific. Every two months, this young chef Joe picks a particular theme, this weekend was Latin American flavors, and rents out a loft space to accomodate 50 diners for a six course wine and food pairing. At $100 per person, there’s no way he turns a profit on it, so you know this thing is done out of passion for his art, not to turn a buck. His girlfriend Whitney handles decor, this evening going with a cool green on brown color scheme, and her dad Art works the room almost like an ambassador for all thing foodie. Custom printed menus are one of many nice little touches you notice throughout the evening.

So Kat and I enter the tiny little elevator (which smelled like piss unfortunately) to get up to the loft. We emerge from the elevator to a nice bright white room with high ceilings. The bright green tablecloths make a nice impression in such a big white room. We’re each given a glass of sauvignon blanc and proceed to find our table. A waiter brings over the first two bites of hors d’oeurves. First up was a salmon popcorn ceviche. Tiny cubes of raw salmon in lime juice accented with mint and a piece of popcorn. Apparently popcorn is commonly used as a garnish in Peruvian versions of ceviche. It was a little odd, but delicious, and reminiscent of a dish at Moto in Chicago where Homaru Cantu would use frozen popcorn as a garnish. The second morsel was a fried yuca chip with a little bite of asparagus topped with a chili aioli. The yuca chip was delightfully salty and the chili aioli added just the right amount of richness and bite to keep things interesting. More than anything, it was that chili aioli that made the sauvignon blanc find its place. A little too green tasting on its own, it became rounder on the palate after tasting the aioli.

We then took our seats for the sit down portion of the meal. First up was a salad of asparagus, jicama, some baby greens, a tiny carrot, and the star of the dish, several gorgeous baby morels, all layered between two round tortilla chips. It was a nicely executed dish, but really it was just the presence of the morels that won me over. The dressing was described as something made by reducing a Peruvian cocktail called Pisco Sours down to a sauce. It certainly matched well with the morels. The salad was paired with a particularly floral and fruity chardonnay, not overdone, but big enough to go well with the earthiness of the morels.

Onto the next course where we were treated to empanadas stuffed with braised oxtail sitting atop what Joe called a “plantain soup”. The soup was really more like something between a mash and a puree. Whatever you call it, it is what made the dish. The empanada by itself was a touch too heavy on the salt, but when you took a bit with the plantain all over it, yummmm, perfection. It was paired with a pretty light bodied Malbec with enough forward fruit to make me happy, but with a little bit of an edge in the finish which delightfully disappeared when tasted with the food. Again, I believe it was the plantain to the rescue in this pairing.

Next up was the highlight of the evening, both in the dish as well as the wine pairing. The wine was a 2002 Zuccardi “Q” Malbec. Nice deep purple color and the big forward fruit I so love in California wines, but this was from Argentina. No sharpe finish to this wine; so it starts off with the fruit up front, a mild oakiness in the middle, and a tightly restrained finish. The dish it was paired with was a Cuban style mojo pork. It was a super tender and juicy chunk of pork served alongside a little pool of what was presumably the same herb mojo that the pork had marinated in. It was deliciously herbal and a little salty, like a brightly flavored herb pesto. Every bite of pork dipped in that oil was magnificent and the Malbec maintained all its fruity integrity and depth as its accompaniment.

Onto the duck course, which was probably the least impressive of all the dishes that evening. While perfectly cooked, the breast meat still was a little tough in spots, and perhaps a little too fatty for many at our table (not for me though; shocker). It was a simple preparation with the generous slices of duck perched atop a bed of quinoa. Certainly a good dish, but just not up to par with every other dish we had up to that point. It was paired with a decent but not memorable cabernet. I think I’m just jaded when it comes to cabs because of my fondness for the profile of cabs that come out of Napa. This one just didn’t have enough of anything; enough fruit, enough oak, enough depth across the board. Pleasant enough to drink, but didn’t make me swoon the way great cabs do.

Finally we came to dessert. A dark rich flan made with bay leaf sitting in a pool of light caramel sauce. Or maybe it was maple, but Kat and I were pretty much too drunk to distinguish much of anything at that point. What I did know was that the dessert wine, an Argentinian Santa Julia Tardio was a terrific apricoty gem. The pairing really worked in remarkable fashion. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a dessert wine that still retained as much of its sweetness, fruit and freshness even after taking a bite of sweet dessert. I was so shocked and impressed, I experimented by taking a taste of the wine followed by a taste of just the sweetest element of the dessert, the sauce, and followed it immediately with another sip of the wine. It was true, both the before and after sips were equally sweet, bright and refreshing. A fantastic finish to a truly special event. I fully intend to attend every one of these events from now on. Thanks Kat!