No doubt you have all heard about or are experiencing Hurricane Sandy at this point. Living here in Philadelphia, we were bracing for getting a good portion of the storm. We spent a good part of Sunday getting ready–my wife tends to worry a lot about natural disasters so she was running all over the place, filling water bottles, caulking windows, putting fresh batteries in all the flashlights. I was in the basement preparing as well. I was worried that we would lose power and there would be no way to chill any champagne, so I wanted to make sure that we got a few bottles in the fridge well before any power loss. Hurricanes can be rather taxing and facing them without any bubbles is just primitive.

We also had plans to travel out to the suburbs to have dinner with our friends Sunday night. We were a bit worried about the storm, so we vacillated all day on whether we would go. Given my wife’s general debilitating fear of ‘natural’ dangers (along with hurricanes, the list includes bears, field mice, and cilantro) I figured we would end up staying at home. When our friend texted me to determine what time we would be over, I tried a rather radical approach–I discussed it with my wife. Much to my surprise, she was not all that worried about Sandy. Rather, like me, she was much more concerned about two factors far more serious–traffic and parking.

This weekend, even without Sandy, was already a bit of a traffic/parking perfect storm: there was an Eagles game and it was the weekend before Halloween (it is often difficult to distinguish an Eagles game from a Halloween parade, but that is not the point I am trying to make here). The drive out to their place normally takes about 30 minutes, but since we need to essentially go right by the stadium, we need to carefully coordinate travel based both on the kickoff time and a detailed analysis of the game–Eagles fans start to leave in droves when they know the game is hopelessly lost and against a team with even the slightest pulse, this could be at halftime.

We live in the city and we are not one of the one percenters–we do not have our own parking spot. On weekend nights, it is usually next to impossible to find a spot anywhere in our zip code, but on this, the last weekend before Halloween, you can just forget about it altogether. We live right behind an historic prison that turns into one of the largest Haunted Houses in the country–and every drunk in New Jersey seems to flock to our neighborhood with their Hummers and their pathetic parallel parking. This time of year, if you are not parked by 6:00 p.m. you will be driving around for the rest of time looking for a spot. Leaving voluntarily at night is pure folly–turning us into prisoners outside the walls since we can’t leave.

Once I figured out that my wife was primarily concerned about the parking (she really could not have cared less about the traffic since I drive and she tries to prevent the boys from fighting which ends up in them becoming even more upset, making the drive seem even longer, but she knows it bothers me so she pretends to care), it was surprisingly easy to decide to go. Why? Simple: our friend is an incredible cook. So much so that he has even started a bit of a business with another friend of his where they prepare unbelievable multi-course meals in your own home (it is called Rozca). He often tries out his new creations on us just call me ‘guinea’), so when he said he had a few new dishes and he wanted to get our input, we decided it was worth it to drive over despite the 45 mph wind gusts and the driving rain (actually, it was only a little breezy and it had not even started raining yet, but I need to keep up my reputation as an irresponsible father). (By the way, both boys fell asleep in the car on the way over, but I woke them both up as soon as we arrived–it had just started raining and since we had just bought a new car the day before, I did not want to crack the window–and oh yeah, there was a hurricane or something.)

The meal and wines were stellar, or friend really is talented:

Seamless ravioli with a champagne sabayon, smoked trout, smoked roe and coco nib.

Salmon stuffed with pesto wrapped with chicken skin and deep fried.

Pork Belly Tamale with salsa verde.

Agluotti made with nduja (spreadable) salami with green lentils pickled sunchoke and delicatta squash.

All of the food was amazing and it was very difficult to chose a dish of the night. Each of the four of us chose a different ‘favorite’ which is testament to our friend’s creativity, capability, and consistency as a chef.

Of course we had some wine as well:

2005 Basserman-Jordan Forster Pechstein Riesling Spätlese Trocken:  Retail $20-25? A bit of petrol and lemon on the nose. A hint of sweetness on the palate with very nice acidity. Very Good to Excellent. 89-91 points.

1990 Marchesi di Barolo Millenium Barolo: Retail $80? On sale at the PLCB for $25. We have had two of these over the last few days. after the first, it was clear this could use a little decant, so we opened this up for about an hour beforehand. Great nose of cherry and hints of smoke and anise. On the palate, this is an incredible food wine with great acidity and subtle fruit.  It continued to improve as we went along, suggesting a longer decant. Outstanding. 91-93 points.