This week sees the repeat of last year’s Golfers & Vintners Wine Dinner, co-sponsored by Golf magazine, at Fleming’s in Newport Beach.
What a concept they have in this event that features the wines of three men who are celebrated in both the vineyard and on the fairways. The unique dinner is scheduled for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
Greg Norman is a stylish man on the golf course. Wine Spectator magazine says that his Greg Norman Estates wines are the epitome of “power and grace.” Beyond those beguiling charms, his wines also are described as being “well balanced” and having “tremendous length.” Norman’s wines are playing large on the international stage, just as his game is known globally.
The Nick Faldo wines are from the Coonawarra region of Australia, famed for its big, full-bodied vintages. The wines are made from estate-grown fruit and are crafted to capture an early drinking, forward fruit style.
Finally, David Frost has been playing golf for a long time and producing fine wines from his native South Africa since 1994. David was raised on a wine farm in the Stellenbosch region, 30 miles north of Cape Town, so he’s long been a connoisseur of fine wines anyway.
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Fleming’s in Newport Beach: hosting Golfers and Vintners Wine Dinner |
The menu sounds terrific. I love the way they’ve chosen to describe it all.
The dinner begins with a course called the Driving Range: flat bread with caramelized onions and figs and gorgonzola-stuffed mushrooms with a polenta crust. Wine match is the David Frost Sauvignon Blanc, Paarl Gene Sarazen Label, 2001.
The Front Line course will be saffron risotto cake layered with sea scallops (this is courtesy of Greg Norman’s wife, Laura. It’s his favorite recipe) and Greg Norman Victoria, Australia 2002 Chardonnay.
Third course of the meal is Clubhouse Turn: crispy roast duck on mesclun greens with orange-lime vinaigrette and Nick Faldo 2001 Coonawarra Shiraz.
The Back Nine course follows with a peppercorn filet with Parisian potatoes and seasonal vegetables and Greg Norman 2000 Reserve Mc-Laren Vale Australia Shiraz.
Dessert is called the Play-Off course. A chocolate baked Alaska is the treat, along with Rosemount’s Old Benson (Southeastern Australia) NV Tawny Port.
To add to the fun of the evening, you are invited to test your skills at GOLO. It’s a “golf-in-a-cup” dice game that allows you to play 18 holes indoors. One winner at each restaurant will receive a gift, courtesy of Greg Norman Estates. All guests that evening will receive a complimentary three-month subscription to Wine Spectator.
There’s also a chance to win Fleming’s Surf & Turf Weekend Sweepstakes for two people in Cancun. Golf magazine also is a co-sponsor of this. To register, go to www.flemingssteakhouse.com/cancun.
We know that the golf pros like dining at Fleming’s because a bunch of them ate there during the recent Toshiba Classic. The event costs $85, tax and gratuity not included.
Call (949) 720-9633 for reservations. Fleming’s Newport Beach is at 455 Newport Center Drive.
Thai at Coffee Shop Prices
It’s so refreshing to see a family-owned, single location restaurant thrive for many years, especially one as attractive and serious with its food as Thai Kitchen.
We first discovered it in 1993 and immediately were taken with the pleasing architecture and decor. Angular lines are interfaced in such a way that they have no hard edges, just interesting juxtapositions resulting in unexpected ways of drawing the eye around the room.
The colors on the walls are pastels, serene and calming. Seating is comfortable enough that you want to take your time dining and lingering over conversation.
As for the food, it’s as good as we’ve found outside Thailand, and we keep having fun introducing customers, not to mention just the two of us dining on our own. One of the other big draws here is that you get sophisticated and beautifully presented Thai food at coffee shop prices.
The hostess/owner Lan Lan and her staff are ever charming and provide such considerate service. It does encompass all the things that make for an endearing restaurant.
There are 66 items on the dinner menu priced from $5.25 to $15.50 (for a whole steamed fish with Thai lime sauce). At lunch, prices are $6.95 to $8.95, with 27 dishes to choose from.
Most of us really enjoy the peanut-type sauces that go with satay (skewered, grilled meats and seafood). This kitchen’s version is a great balance of peanut-sesame flavored dip, so much so that our neighbors keep bringing home a side order of it to use on their own meat the next day.
You can consider the angel wings appetizer sufficient for a whole meal, or good for sharing with up to half a dozen as an appetizer. These are boneless chicken wings that are stuffed with ground chicken, shrimp and transparent noodles. However, they are huge. How the kitchen gets that much stuffing into the wings is amazing. They are a crisply coated sensation with the tender interior adding contrast. Each wing is cut into three big pieces, which you can dip into the barely sweet sauce that mingles with chopped peanuts.
I cannot remember having a meal at Thai Kitchen without ordering the mee krob, so authentic that it has no local peers. It comes with shrimp and chicken as part of the dish or as a vegetarian version. This is the beloved Thai appetizer that is comprised of crispy rice noodles, shellfish, chicken and green onion glazed over with a petty magical tamarind sauce. I am completely addicted to it.
A wrap is a wrap until you meet the whole shrimp that surrounds a chicken forcemeat, the whole thing tucked inside an egg roll pasta sheet and served with a nice sweet and sour sauce.
Soup is big in Asian cuisines. Here, I highly recommend the delightful mingling of coconut milk, chicken or shrimp and lemongrass in the coconut chicken soup. It’s smooth with just a hint of zing and it perks up a weary palate. Additional chile flavor perks up a more spicy seafood soup that finds mussels, shrimp, scallops and squid in the broth. Of course, if you are an aficionado of won ton soup, this version with shrimp, chicken and vegetables accompanying the stuffed won tons would be another good choice.
The pan-Asian salads bear no resemblance to American salads, thus offering new insights. You find lots of shrimp, beef, miscellaneous shellfish and chicken incorporated. The dressings often are made with limejuice rather than vinegar and their indigenous flavorings like lemongrass waft through. Try the Yum Woon Sen salad that gives shrimp, chicken, clear noodles, boiled egg, tomato, cucumber and onion a whole new fulfilling definition.
Thailand is a place of diverse styles of cuisine, each an ongoing part of the culture of the area. Most of what we know here comes from Bangkok-style food. More subtle dishes are the trademark of gorgeous places such as Ching Mai and Ching Rai.
At Thai Kitchen, you will find many of the regional nuances in the sophisticated entrees. Pork takes on a whole new persona in the sliced loin clinging to a spiced honey sauce, along with snow peas and mushrooms.
A fine dish called Ruby Siam finds chicken saut & #233;ed with cashews, roasted chiles and mixed vegetables in a signature house sauce. One doesn’t expect to find barbecued chicken at a Thai place, but this version is authentic homeland with Thai spiced sauce clinging to the tender bird. Try the terrific combination of chicken and shrimp in the Lovers Honeymoon dish. It’s the Thai version of sweet and sour, but this one is studded with the sweetness of pineapple. Gingered pork is another winner with it’s co-mingling of mushrooms, bell pepper and snow peas.
Curries come in green, yellow and red hues. Each has its own level of zestiness, explained by your server. I happen to love the green beef curry that finds the sliced meat in a mellowed out curry sauce with undertones of coconut milk and just a hint of feistiness from some moderately endowed chiles.
Barbecue duck in red curry with pineapple also brings new meaning to that tasty bird. This is another of my favored dishes.
There are several interesting vegetable and/or vegetarian-inspired dishes. The saut & #233;ed eggplant with chiles and basil is very appealing and I certainly am fond of the green beans with tofu in a light mushroom sauce. Vegetables and tofu in red curry sauce also is a good one.
Asians like their noodle dishes. Phad Thai is probably the most recognizable of names in Thai cuisine. Take tender noodles and mix them with shrimp, sliced chicken, egg, chunks of tofu, chopped green onion and ground peanuts and stir-fry them together with a dash of house-made sauce and you’ve got a most satisfying mingling of flavors.
When I am in a quandary about what to eat, I often opt for Thai Kitchen and this particular dish. Two other noodle dishes that I particularly like are the Kai Kua with rice noodles, chicken, squid and egg on a bed of lettuce and the Phad See Iw that’s made of beef, rice noodles, broccoli and optional shrimp. Truly good stuff.
They do several nice fish dishes too. In addition to steamed whole fish, swimmers are topped with a hot and savory chile sauce (one of the signature dishes of Thailand) and fried with another version of a strong-willed chile enhancement.
Many combinations of shellfish also are offered.
Thais make the most extraordinary coconut ice cream, with the added surprise of corn kernels in it. It’s the end-all dessert for me and I am always happy to linger over that last cup of tea and bite-by-bite pleasure from this creamy, mouth-filling delicacy.
AT A GLANCE: THAI KITCHEN
Address: 4250 Barranca Parkway (in Stonecreek Plaza at West Yale Loop) Irvine
Phone: (949) 857-1788
Cost: Lunch entrees $6.95 to $8.95; dinner appetizers $5.25 to $9.50, entrees $6.95 to $15.50
