Last night, we joined two other couples at Pulaski Technical College for a dinner prepared and served by students of the Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute. The facility serves dinners (and lunch) two or three times per week to give students real world experience preparing fine meals. One of the couples had been to the College for dinner and lunch more than once before; they are the ones who suggested the evening.
In addition to good conversation and an opportunity to see what I consider a first-class culinary teaching facility, we had a very fine meal. Oh, yes, the meal we had was very fine, indeed.
To start, they served an amuse bouche, which was a fig stuffed with a very nice duck paté/mousse. Next up, we enjoyed mushroom red pepper crostini, followed by scallops provençal on a bed of couscous. The main course was a beautifully rare New York steak au poivre with green peppercorn demi-glace. For dessert, they served a mascarpone dome drizzled with chocolate and raspberry sauce. The cost: only twenty dollars per person! It was a spectacular dinner.
Virtually none of the meal was on our South Beach diet, but we gladly broke the diet. If it hadn’t been for the fact that my eye (the one operated on for cataracts the day before) was giving me fits, it would have been a perfect evening. With good fortune, we’ll go back in the not-too-distant future when we can enjoy the experience without being interrupted by my weeping.
