HOLIDAY CUISINE IN PURGATORY

This has been a particularly exceptional holiday period, so far, for food with friends.  But I will begin with this morning, when I got out of bed at 9:30AM and ten hours of sleep.  I seek 10 hours once/month, and succeed, maybe, four times annually.

For Christmas Eve dinner at 15 Craigside I was invited to join the table of Charlotte and Al Matsuda, with their daughter Lynn, husband, Doug, and children Halle and Kyle:

I traditionally bring my most expensive Stanford alumni wine to this table, and this year it was a Collector's Reserve Lyndenhurst by Spottswoode 2014 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which just arrived this month.  Those other bottles are dark chocolate with a hint of liquors like Remy Martin, etc.

The next day, I had my annual Christmas dinner at the Lees.  Leona kindly picks me up and takes me back home, for I know I will have a couple of drinks or more.  Harvey to the right and Betsy with son Patrick:

Yesterday, my neighbor John Aoki and I went golfing at the Ala Wai Golf Course.  It was raining with thunder and lightning, so I quit after the sixth hole, but John went on with two others and played his best ever golf, with a birdie and four pars.  On the way home we bought some Japanese wagyu beef and o-toro for sashimi.  Marilyn and Wil joined us for an incredibly fabulous meal.

I brought two bottles of Stanford reds, for I was not sure if the 2003 Hans Fahden Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon would be drinkable.  This potion turned out to be perfectly aged, and one of the very best wines I ever had the pleasure to drink.

Still to come, New Year's Eve Dinner followed by poker to Midnight and later:

Then for my first meal on January 1, O-zoni, which this year will feature scallops, abalone, hokigai, lotus root, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, mochi, mustard cabbage, won bok and more.  I also will grill a small piece of Japanese Wagyu Beef from Miyazaki, and craft some O-toro Blue Fin Tuna sashimi, with libations I haven't yet quite identified.

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