Fondue For You?
Comments (0) A few months back I had a fondue party. While I am working towards getting to a point where I have enough time and moolah to send out really great and memorable custom invitations, I am not there quite yet. In the meantime, I stick with my old standby, evite. I planned for a party for 6, 5 guests including myself. The couple with 2 cats between them, the couple with a daughter between them, and my date for the night, a most interesting woman who is much younger looking than her years. The conversation went from Beaujolais to kilts and just about everything in between. With fondue, the hardest part isn’t coming up with a menu mix, it’s coming up with a good conversation mix.
Menu and Serving
The menu is quite simple. I created a platter of Old Bay shrimp, Jamaican spiced chicken, and soy marinated beef on a large platter separated by celery stalks.
The veggies included baby potatoes, baby carrots, mushroom caps, and broccoli florets.
The fondue was a broth fondue made with equal parts soy sauce and chicken broth. I have heard this recipe is killer with Saki instead of the broth that I have to try sometime.
The fondue set I used is by Trudeau. It is similar to the one pictured below; it has pots for both broth/oil and cheese/chocolate fondue. Regular dinner plates were used, but these fondue plates I will have to keep on mind for next time. I am continuing to increase my inventory of serving ware, but when you are with friends, anything is suitable.
Drinks included selections from Moore Brothers Wine Company. The one big hit of the night was a Beaujolais-Villages from Georges Trichard. It’s a part of my Moore Brothers wine portfolio and I have to make a point of returning and picking up a few more bottles for the next shindig. The wine glasses I used were from Michael Chiarello’s line, Napa Style. I had been coveting the Venetian Style Wine Tumblers for some time and finally had a chance to use them for this informal gathering.
Accessories
The great thing about fondue is, the accessories needed are limited. Everything needed is included in the fondue set, all that is really necessary are the people. A selection of dippers that I used included cocktail sauce, barbecue sauce, Sirrachi sauce, spinach dip, vegetable dip, and hummus. A mini bamboo strainer made for quick retrieval of meat and veggies that fell off the skewers and a tablecloth for quick tabletop cleanup.
A fondue shindig is definitely something on the smaller scale, the amount of food included. I seemed to have cut up enough food for an army, and had leftovers for General Tso’s Chicken, Shrimp Scampi, and Beef Stroganoff. Sometimes the food is secondary when you are having such a good time with friends.
