I was, sadly, somewhat embarrassed by my own College’s display at its BA Dinner last week.
The food, for the most part, was passable: chicken terrine (intriguingly with pistachio nuts added,) and beautifully-soft steamed cod with dill sauce. The accompaniment to the main course, a cold green bean and potato salad was uninspiring, and the hazelnut tart (with chantilly cream) for dessert was more reminiscent of a school canteen than expected of Oxbridge’s richest college.
The most embarrassing part was the bizarre limit on the wine, normally free-flowing at these dinners: one bottle of white (Muscadet de Serve et Main Sur Lie) and two of red (College’s Cotes du Rhone rouge) between a table of eight. Both rather good wines, but the limit was entirely unacceptable, especially where the main course was fish. College will be getting a strongly worded letter.
[...] After last week’s disaster, I was somewhat nervous about taking guests to Trinity’s weekly graduate dinner. Fortunately, my fears were broadly misplaced, and a good evening was had by all. Importantly the wine didn’t run out: Fortant’s 2003 Grenache and 2006 Sauvignon Blanc were good and balanced well the meal. The Grenache, by consensus, was the better of the wines. [...]