Tom's All Star Dinner
Monk's Cafe
July 12, 2005
Well, time again for Tom Peters' All Star Dinner where
he highlights locally-grown produce, locally-raised meats and locally-brewed
beers. It is a great dinner! They do not sell lots of tickets for this
one as he wants to keep it intimate in the back bar area. All the usual
suspects were there, however. George Hummel was the host, as always, and
Jack Curtin took his seat at the bar. A group of brewers from Iron Hill
took up the largest table along with Gordon Grubb of Nodding Head. Ed Friedland
of Friedland Distributing was also there to enjoy the festivities.
We started out with 2 beers as an apertif...as a matter of
fact, they were two of my favorites, Ich Bin Ein Berliner Weiss from Nodding
Head and Bob Barrar's famous Framboise! Even knowing that we had 11 more
beers to go, I had to have a second glass of the Framboise!
Our palates properly prepared, we were now ready for
some food. A salad of arugula, tomatoes and greens was set before us along
with Stewart's Pils and Sly Fox's Renard d'Or. The produce was grown in
NJ. The micro greens were from MacGregor Farms in Shiloh and the arugula
from Green Meadow Farms.
For the fish course, we had littleneck clams steamed
in Aprihop fume and herb butter accompanied by Yard's Philadelphia Pale
Ale and Dogfish's Aprihop.....a strange combo but worked quite well. The
clams again came from Seaburst Farm at the Jersey Shore.
The next course was skewered Moroccan Chicken presented
with Nodding Heads 3C and Heavyweight's Biere d'Art. The fruity bitterness
of the 3C was a great complement to the spiciness of the meat and the light
dryness of the Biere d'Art cleansed the palate beautifully. The chicken
was a free range chicken from Elmer, NJ and the sauce was made with locally
made organic yogurt and dill .
By this time everyone was wondering what they were going
to do for the rest of the meal! The entree was a full rack of ribs, Jersey
corn and bleu cheese potato salad. Stoudt's ESB and Flying Fish Porter
were poured with the entree. The spicy barbecue sauce on the ribs again
gave a complement/contrast with the 2 different styles of beer. Personally,
I took almost the whole rack home with me.The baby back ribs were from
Natural Acres in Millersburg, PA. The sauce was made with the FF Porter,
the potatoes from Philip Landis and the bleu cheese made by Laura Pepper
in Pottstown.
Last, but not least, dessert consisted of 2 items...as
if we needed them. A wonderful fruit tarte and a chocolate hazelnut tarte
from Tartes in Philadelphia accompanied by General Lafayette John Doe Oat
Stout and Victory V12 and chocolate-dipped biscottis from Miel in Philadelphia
poured with Weyerbacher Decadence.
Without a special guest speaker, the dinner moved right
along and ended fairly early. We all waddled out the door for our specific
destinations and wondered how Tom would top this next year!
HOME