wedding tasting

yesterday, we headed into philadelphia for our wedding tasting at our venue - xix restaurant at the hyatt at the bellevue.  center city was a bustle - no, not because of me and craig...  president obama was making an appearance, not just in philly, not just in center city, but in the hyatt at the same hour of our tasting.  needless to say the crowds were massive.  luckily, we got into the parking garage just minutes before they put it on "lock down" for three hours.

(we tweeted obama and invited him to our tasting, but alas, he did not show...)

for our tasting, we selected 3 appetizers and 3 entrees to sample.  we also were able to try out the available wines and also (re)try our wedding cake. 

the spread was beautiful as well as delicious.  the apps we selected to try were:

appetizer sampler

spinach salad, tossed tableside with granny smith apples, warm rosemary polenta, caramelized endive and goat cheese

asian pear salad, tossed tableside with baby greens, gorgonzola, pecan and cider vinaigrette

jumbo lump crab cake, pickled beets, mustard aioli with red pepper coulis

the entrees we tried were:

entree sampler

mushroom and onion tart with gruyere, arugula and lemon vinaigrette

lemon thyme roasted eberly farms chicken, paired with jumbo grilled shrimp, sweet potato puree, wilted greens with morel demi

roasted beef tenderloin paired with pan seared filet of grouper, potato gnocchi, braised holland leeks with tomato infused demi

the wines we sampled were equally good.  the pinot grigio, chardonnay, merlot and cabernet sauvignon all hailed from a private label exclusively available at the hyatt.  i'm not a huge red wine drinker, but the merlot was particularly good...especially with the chicken with morel demi...

for dessert we enjoyed a wedding cake sampling:

chocolate, chocolate chip, marble, vanilla and lemon pound cakes

with a variety of icing options:

vanilla, chocolate, fudge, mocha and strawberry

we like the chocolate chip and marble pound cakes with the fudge icing and the lemon with the vanilla icing.  delish!

we definitely found some favorites.  the rosemary polenta appetizer was excellent, and my personal fave of everything we tried was the mushroom & onion tart with gruyere.  it. was. amazing.  the chicken was also fabulous, and though i didn't try it, there were not complaints about the beef.  decisions...decisions...

we're torn between doing a duo entree for everyone (chicken with grilled shrimp) or offering a choice (chicken or beef).  your thoughts???

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