Top Tables…

Ann’s on the foodie trail again this Saturday. Here she is…
“It’s been a good couple of weeks for grand dinners, and for those of us who like to hear what the great and the good get to eat. Here’s the menu for the State Banquet at Buckingham Palace, when the Queen entertained the Obamas last week:
Paupiette of sole with watercress, sauce Nantua 
New season’s Windsor lamb with basil, courgettes and sautéed radishes, green beans, potatoes boulangere
Salad
Vanilla Charlotte with cherries
Fruit

Wines :
Ridgeview Cuvée Merret Fitzrovia Rosé 2004 – an English sparkling wine from the Ridgeview vineyard on the South Downs, near Ditchling Beacon. The 2007 vintage can be yours for around £22 a bottle.
Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos 2004 (Domaine William Fèvre) – yours at around £70 a bottle for the 2007 vintage.
Echézeaux Grand Cru 1990 (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti) –expensive – 3 bottles auctioned in May at Sothebys’ in New York for £1,655
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Vintage Rich 2002, around £45 a bottle
Royal Vintage Port 1963 – one year older than Michelle Obama, 2 years younger that the President.
The next evening the President and his wife hosted a dinner for the Queen and other grand guests. And they ate:
Lobster ravioli
Griddled filet of aged Highlands beef, crushed jersey royals with rosemary, asparagus and minted broad beans
Classic pecan pie and brandy ice cream
Alas, no news of what guests drank. But after those dinners, perhaps they had poached egg on toast on the following night....
The most adventurous menu was served to the Queen in Dublin, the week before the Obamas’ visit. She ate:
Cured salmon with Burren smoked salmon cream and lemon balm jelly, horseradish and wild watercress, Kilkenny organic cold pressed rapeseed oil
Rib of Slaney Valley Beef, ox cheek and tongue with smoked champ potato and fried spring cabbage, new season broad beans and carrots with pickled and wild garlic leaf
Carrageen set West Cork cream with Meath strawberries, 
fresh yoghurt mousse and soda bread sugar biscuits, Irish apple balsamic vinegar meringue
Irish Cheese Plate
And to make you even hungrier, join my next walk for foodies - Saturday June 4, 10.45 at Green Park tube, park exit - just inside the park.”