New Year's Eve Event

We have been married over 30 years and aside of a couple of house parties, we are home bodies on New Year's Eve.  Last night we changed that.  The club house had a New Year's Eve party featuring The Full Monte (DJ/entertainer), full dinner, dancing and breakfast just after midnight.  Tickets were $75 per couple.

The appetizers were set up buffet style in a separate room.  They included peeled tail on shrimp, cooked salmon with capers, and a cheese and cracker tray.  I really liked how the flavour of the capers worked nicely with the salmon so that will be something I try at home. 

It was nice that the appetizers were serve yourself too especially for this type of event.  Those who wanted appetizers could help themselves as much as they wanted.  This reduced the work load on the small workstaff allowing them to focus on serving beverages and getting the prepared dinner plates to the table while the food was still hot.

The dinner had been billed as sirloin steak or chicken with making your choice when purchasing tickets.  We chose steak.  Pictured was the way our entrée was presented.  Our meal included a cut of roast beef, twice baked potato, asparagus and horseradish sauce.  The plate was garnished with dried parsley flakes, an often overused garnish but in this case it presented a festive note quite fitting for the occasion.  It was delicious other than the meat not being steak and a bit over cooked for our tastes.

My gosh though there were a lot of complaints over the meat.  Like others we expected steak not roast beef.  The chef at the club house was originally put on a pedestal by the community but has slowly been working on a down turn which is unfortunate.  There were a lot of upset folks last night!  I'm sure management will be getting an earful Monday.  In all honesty, it was a good meal that had it been promoted as roast beef rather than steak there likely would have been no complaints at all.

Dessert was tiramisu.  This is a delicious, easy to make dessert.  It consists of biscuits dipped in coffee then layered with a whipped mascarpone cheese mixture.  I have seen a lot of tiramisu presentations.  Unfortunately this one was very much lacking as far as presentation.  I was a bit disappointed especially when a chef should know presentation is a key component to any dish.  Making up for the lack of creative presentation was taste.  The tiramisu was delicious!

Breakfast was served at 12:15 AM.  It included scrambled egges, bacon, sausage patties, and tater tots.  Quite frankly it was too heavy for us that late at night but many enjoyed it.  I can't imagine it sitting well with those who had spent the night drinking either.  I noticed too that coffee, tea or something a little lighter was not available for the late meal. 

All in all we had a good time. Neither of us feel it was worth the pricetag if just considering the meals but the entertainment factor counted for something.  As foodies we would rate the food as average, definitely not spectacular.  But it was a different experience for us, certainly a different way for us to greet the new year.  I'm glad we went!