Wine Dinner at the Palisades

I had an awful day today. You know those days where something goes horribly wrong and it triggers a waterfall of everything else that's bad in your life, and you just sit with your head in your hands and cry in front of strangers? Yeah. That was my day.

So, I left studio early and set up my hammock and sat outside. I was having a fine and dandy time, drifting in the breeze, when my roommate texted me, asking if I wanted to go to the Palisades for dinner.

uhDUH.

So Ryan and I hopped in his jeep and drove down 460. The theme tonight was Australia, and their menu looked divine.

I was eyeballing that meat pie HARD.

It was nice to not arrange the menu, considering all of the planning my mom and I did for our wine dinner two weeks ago. I was excited about everything, especially the BBQ shrimp pizza. I don't drink many Sirahs or Shirazes either, so I was looking forward to that.

SO EXCITED

The Petite Sirah smelled and tasted very woody and hearty. I picked up on jammy, fruit leathery notes as well, but it was more tannic and herbaceous. I did pick up a hint of moroccan mint tea as well.

The Shiraz was fruitier than the Sirah, and the texture on my tongue reminded me of a citrus peel that's been left out to dry on the counter. The plum and berry notes were huge, and there was a nice spicy pepper-ness on the mid palate that lingered.

The Riesling caught me off guard- it was rather effervescent, and tasted slightly of whipped cream. It was very green leafy though, like the oak leaf canopy of my backyard. I imagined chomping down on those leaves when I tried this wine.

Left to right: Petite Sirah, Shiraz, Riesling

The food arrived at our table arranged in a different order than the wines each dish was paired with, so I switched everything around. First, I tried the BBQ Shrimp pizza with the Riesling. The effervescence died down a lot after drinking it with a hot slice of pizza. The sauce overpowered the wine, toning down the fruitiness and mellowing it out. The pizza was GOOD. I ate half of it first, and then saved the other half for the end of the meal.

A decimated plate

I went out of order, to save the meat pie for last, and had the dim sum dumplings. I felt that the dumpling had no flavor and a gummy texture that didn't suit the filling or the wine well. I know steamed dumplings are the way to go, but it could've been thinner. Or, perhaps, tradition could've been broken and the dumpling been fried. Whatever the case, the dumpling was too blah and threw off the wine and filling. But the filling and the wine complimented each other quite nicely! Their spicy profiles united to create a robust flavor that was very earthy.

Oh GOD, we started eating before photographing!

What terrible food Instagrammers we would be.

Finally, I cut into the meat pie. It was delightful! There was so much flavor and happiness in my mouth. The tannic structure of the wine supported the beef of the pie very well.

I will say, the pie got tiring towards the end. I almost left half of it on the plate (but then I thought, why would I waste such a great piece of food and took one for the team). I'm glad all of the portions were small, or else I wouldn't have been able to finish my plate.

The meal was awesome. Our waitress even brought us a ham and pineapple appetizer during our wait for the main courses. I would love to go back to the Palisades and do this again!

Refill, please!