Pasta al salmone/Dinner for Ehud

Monday 24 March

H: I'll make a Saffi in a day or two, to keep the cosmic balance.


B: Ehud gave an AMAZING talk here at Cornell, about his find of Herod's Tomb at Herodion. I can't give away the details before the big National Geographic spread comes out - you'll just have to wait with bated breath.

After the talk, we went out with a lively party from the Near Eastern Department, for dinner to the Taverna Banfi. Despite the odd Italo-Greek name, it's the restaurant at the on-campus Statler Hotel, run by the Cornell Hotel School. The staff, cute kids all, are Hotel School students; I assume they have some guidance, especially if they cook in the kitchen. As Kathy knew we would be a large group, she had arranged for a couple of (mainly kosher) choices. So we were greeted with individual "Ehud Netzer" menus - one of the benefits of easy computer printing.

We started with an antipasto platter of olives, peperoncini, marinated artichokes, asparagus, and a few fettunte (okay, plain bruschette). There was also a softer bread for dipping into oil and balsamic vinegar, plus more olives and sprinkles of parmesan for some purpose or other.

Our wine was a Hermann J. Wiemer riesling from right here in the Finger Lakes. It's one of those not-too-sweet rieslings that goes very well with creamy food (see soup below).

I had the Tuscan mushroom soup, which was a rich, tasty, but not particularly Tuscan bisque. There was a bit of a kashrut scare when our server said it would be topped with oysters, but she meant mushrooms - and they weren't there anyway.

My meat course was duck two ways: breast and confit leg with golden raisins. Very nicely done, especially the juicy breast, which was just au point. The scattering of grilled vegetables was fine as well.

I ended up glad that they were out of the on-menu dessert, amaretto crème caramel; because I was able to substitute a much more interesting white chocolate mascarpone parfait, made with berries and crushed amaretti. A good end to a fine dinner, after a wonderful talk.