By Greg B.  Day 2 of the Washington DC excursion started like any normal science convention day.  We were in transit for several hours this morning, traffic going into Baltimore on I-95, plus some traffic in DC (though minor, especially with the G-20 summit, plus SFN (Society for Neuroscience) meeting starting.  After checking into our hotel (Beacon hotel corporate quarters) and seeing our nice suite, complete with kitchen, we went to the conference.

Now, I’m not going to bore you with the tedious nature of science.  However, for dinner, my labmates and I had a reservation here in the hotel restaurant.  Normally, hotel restaurants are not really worth the price, but this was a pretty good place.  Rajan was our waiter, and he was a bit green, but very friendly and expedient with his service.   There is a saturday wine dinner, which has three courses paired with different wines.  Seeing as how there are three meals for each course (except desert, there were two options) we each took one of the courses, to see how all the different wines paired with all the different meals.  Lets find out how they did!

First Course

• Rocket Salad with Roasted Red and Yellow Beets, paired with Yalumba Shiraz-viognier:  This wine smelled like dark fruits and burnt leather (though in a good way).  The salad was very nice, sweet, with the cheese it was slightly salty and nice.  The wine really worked well with this salad, added a darker element to the sweeter, lighter salad.
• Parmesan crisp Margarita with Alice white Pinot Noir: The wine smelled oaky, and had a slightly taste of currant.  The salad was a bit bland, needed more basil, garlic, salt.. something to give it a bit more flavor.  The wine, being more bold in flavor, over powered the salad, just by virtue of it’s nature.
• Cucumber & Melon salad with Domaine Bellevue savignon blanc: This was a sweeter, lighter smell, tasted of light fruits.  While I normally don’t like melon, I really think this salad worked well.  The melon had a nice sweetness which was added to the saltiness of the salad and had a nice cucumber texture.  The basil vinaigrette really helped mellow the melon flavor, and was very nice.  With the wine, the basil flavor was really enhanced, and the melon flavor hidden.  Nice!

Second Course

• Lemon and Rosemary Chicken with redwood Creek Pinot Grigio: This was a nice dish, the carrots were cooked very well and were easy to cut with a fork, the pasta was a bit buttery but very nice, and the chicken was moist (the tiniest bit tough, from the charring on the exterior of the chicken breast, but very nice tasting and moist, regardless).  The wine had mixed results.  I felt it was a nice, refreshing change from the more buttery, intense lemon flavor of the chicken.  Gabi felt that the wine washed out the flavor of the lemon and butter, and made the meal more bland.
• Bistro Short Ribs  with El Portilla, Pinot Noir:  This was a really nice dish, served with a cheesy polenta and some delicious roasted onions, this was wonderful.  The meat was slightly less tender than I would have expected, but it still was really very nice.  You could still cut the meat with your fork if you were determined.  With the wine, this was one of the best pairings of the night.  The wine complimented the meat extremely well and added a mild dryness to the sweeter flavor of the meat and polenta.
• Chick Peas and Vegetables with Redwood Creek cabernet sauvignon: This dish had a nice spice, though I don’t like the Indian curry flavor (just not really my favorite flavor).  The vegetables were a nice texture, cooked, but not mushy and still with their individual textures.  With the wine, there was an interesting effect.  The wine really mellowed out the curry flavor, but it really accentuated the spice.  The girls did not like this, but I, not being a fan of Indian curry, enjoyed this opportunity to get the spice flavor and minimize the curry flavor!

Third Course

• Double Chocolate Cheesecake with Oporto Dows, finest reserve: This was great.  The cheesecake was nice and thick, with an intense chocolate flavor.  There was a raspberry sauce over the entire dish which was great, and with the port, there really was a great flavor.  I think the minimal sweetness of this particular port really worked nicely with the cheesecake and the raspberry flavor.  This was an extraordinary pairing, and one I would love to try again.
• Coconut and Macadamia Nut tuile with oporto Dows, finest reserve:  This was an OK desert, but you should like whipped cream a lot before you try this.  The Macadamia nuts were great, but I think by this point in the night we were all extremely full, and really didn’t have much room for food.  However, I don’t know that the port worked well with this so much.  Later, the waiter brought us a glass of a sauterne, a 2005 sauterne from Chile.  This was a very nice drink, hardly the really sweet flavor of the usual sauterne but a very nice drink.

In all, this dinner was very nice.  It cost $37 for the three course dinner, wines included, and it was a great value for anyone who wants to try it.  Normally, I don’t think hotel restaurants are the best place to eat, especially with restaurants all over town, but this one was convenient for us and really worked out nicely.  Good work, Beacon Suites and Corporate Quarters!