Blue Mountain coffee and banana Mille Feuille, mango-grapefruit and cilantro ice cream chocolate easel paired with Concha Y Toro Demi Sec.
WESTERN BUREAU:
Half Moon's director of food and beverage Ewart McKie has masterfully crafted a culinary dream team and the result has been declared, "The best synergy you could ever have hoped for."
The resort's Sugar Mill restaurant's culinary offerings have moved several notches up. And this is true of all the dining facilities at the 400-acre property, evidenced last Saturday night by the amazing six-course meal, paired with Chile's Casa Blanca Valley Concha Y Toro wine, distributed by Caribbean Producers Jamaica (CPJ).
Saturday night's wine dinner was special for many reasons, particularly because it was used as the platform to kickstart Sugar Mill's 40th anniversary celebration, while closing the curtains on the year-long 15th anniversary activities marked by CPJ.
And so the resort's executive chef, Steve Sowa and chef de cuisine Ravi Anne presented some of the most innovative dishes ever prepared in the fabled restaurant's kitchen.
Titillating the palates and opening the appetites, the culinary masters introduced a braised oxtail-stuffed spring roll, with Caribbean Ratatouille and scallion ginger broth. This was paired with a fresh, crispy, herbal and fruity 2005, Terrunyo, Sauvignon Blanc.
Perfectly blended with this tasty dish, there was only a slight hint of the Orient somewhere in its origin.
The next course was a smoked pumpkin and conch chowder, with an option of salt fish fries. But this was no ordinary chowder; it totally enveloped the taste buds, placing Sugar Mill's excellence and versatility at another level.
To top this second course, organic greens, spicy grilled plantain timbale, served with cassava shingles and passion cream were introduced to further arouse the palate. But this meal, except for the organic greens, did not do the trick.
However, the very complex, very elegant, distinctive, hazelnut tasting 2005 Amelia Chardonnay, one of Chile's best wines made up beautifully.
Sugar Mill's chefs stepped up several notches with the most incredible pimento saffron and coconut fresh snapper, served on breadfruit and fennel root and pine-pepper jelly, and with this dish they could easily have closed off the evening having proved their prowess in the kitchen.
Palate cleanser
Eaten with a fork and spoon, the snapper was amazingly bold, daring, and out of the box.
The 2006 Amelia Chardonnay was paired with this meal, while a jackfruit and sorrel sorbet was the palate cleanser that made way for the main course - lamb rack, aged Appleton root vegetables, served with yam and Tapioca Gratin and jerked chocolate rosemary sauce.
Two extraordinary wines, both 15 years old, competed with each other - the deep coloured, aromatic, fruity, soft and very friendly Carmenere and Chile's most celebrated Cabernet, 'Don Melchor'.
At the end of a fantastic evening, Chilean sommelier Karine Mollenhauer was in seventh heaven, Steve Sowa was the man of the moment and Ravi Anne looked satisfied.
Janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com
Lamb rack, aged Appleton roasted root vegetables, yam and tapioca gratin, jerk chocolate rosemary sauce paired with two wines, Concha Y Toro Terrunyo Carmenere and Don Melchor. - Photo by Janet Silvera
Pimento, saffron and coconut poached fresh snapper, breadfruit, fennel root and pine pepper jelly.