BBQ Dinner

The theme of the second meeting of the Pune Gourmet Club, an online community on http://www.orkut.com/, was barbecue dinner with white wines – Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc.

The menu was designed by members with advice and inputs from Shagun Mehra, the well known food and wine consultant, to match wines selected for the evening. All the items were prepared by members and brought to the venue ready to be put on the grill. The wine bottles were wrapped in silver foil and tagged with numbers for blind tasting. All attendees were given slips of paper to rate the wines as Very Good (5 points), Good (3 points), So-so (2 points) and Bad (1) point.
The evening’s guests were Girish Kamble and Nitin Shinde, winemakers and consultants to wineries and wine bars. They brought a complimentary bottle of wine from Renaissance Winery and cheese. Vinsura Winery also gave us a bottle each of their Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc with their compliments. ND Wines and Vinsura also offered attractive discounts on their wines to members.
Twenty members attended this meet. A 40% increase over the first meeting. Members shared the workload – assisting in the barbecue, serving wines and keeping everyone’s glasses filled. Kamble & Shinde briefed members about the wines, how to differentiate between Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc and what to look for in a good wine.

The evening’s menu was
Starters:
Hummus with bread
Greek Salad
Minced chicken reshmi kabab
Herb infused Paneer
Bacon Wrapped Prawns
Chicken bites in an oriental sauce
Selection of cheese
Brun with dill butter
Main course:
Slices of Seer fish charcoal grilled on the barbecue and
served with roasted red pepper sauce & grilled Tomato Salsa
Eggplant Parmigiana fresh baked
Stuffed Green, Yellow and Red bell peppers chargrilled on the barbecue.
Dessert:
Ice cream cake

Mr. Nitin Rao of Vinsura sent an email on 10th Nov that their “Chenin Blanc has won silver medal at the recently concluded Wine for Asia at Singapore and the Zinfandel and the Rose won a commendation”. Members can take some satisfaction that the judges in Singapore concurred with their views.

Pune Gourmet Club would like to thank Girish Kamble and Nitin Shinde for spending time with us, Shagun Mehra for inputs on the menu and Vidya Joshi for hosting the evening. And all the members for making the evening a great success.

--------------Salut! Skol! Cheers ! Sante! -----------------------