Where the Path May Lead

Sometimes you need someplace civilized to map out your journey.

Amour Wine Bistro seemed more than up up the task.

I ran into a photographer friend outside on the sidewalk, shooting away.

After a discussion of Perry Ellis shirts and much laughter on my part about grown men discussing fashion, we moved on.

I feel constitutionally unable to start any evening at Amour with anything but Lucien Albrecht Cremant d'Alsace Brut Rose, so why fight it?

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake.The great affair is to move" ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

The new Wine Spectator magazine immediately claimed my attention with its focus on Italy, so it took a few minutes to even look at the menu.

A vegetable terrine was irresistible with layers of yellow pepper, arugula, cauliflower, red pepper, zucchini and a cool, smooth mouth feel.

Tarte flambee served up bread with white cheese, caramelized onions and bacon, the quintessential sweet and salty.

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." ~ Henry Miller

For the next course, we changed grapes, going for two different ones: a Touraine sauvignon blanc and Des Gras Moutons muscadet sevre.

Both shone beautifully with frog legs wrapped in bacon, and our second bacon of the evening.

This led to a discussion with the Frenchman about how bacon preferences are rooted in childhood.

I trace mine back to my mother keeping a can in the kitchen cabinet filled with used bacon grease which was delightfully emplyed to flavor almost everything from eggs to vegetables.

You never really outgrow a taste for that.

If it sounds like all we did was eat and drink, let me assure you that we were busily working on journeying as well.

How many hours in a day? How many must-sees to be seen? How much walking to be enjoyed?

"Travel and place impart new vigor to the mind." ~ Seneca

The Frenchman offered his wisdom, suggesting no plan is best and I assured him any plans were minimal and subject to change.

A cheese and charcuterie plate followed, the Olli salame and prosciutto sublime.

I was reminded of the Italian chef Fabio Trabocchi at Fiola in D.C. once telling me and my dinner companion that it was the best American-made cured meats he'd ever put in his mouth.

Goochland, you done us proud.

For dessert, we each got a different red wine to go with our chocolate creme brulee with sea salt.

There was the Chateua Puy Sarvain Bergerac (Merlot and Cab Franc yummy) and Chateau de Gaudou Cahors 2009 (a juicy Malbec).

Not satisfied with mere chocolate, my companion then tucked into an apple tart tatin with Calvados for pouring over and sipping with, truly a classic French dessert.

Despite the food and wine coma we were in, much had been accomplished during our prolonged stay and bidding adieu to the Frenchman, we gathered up our books and notebooks and wandered out, one step closer to the journey.

It was all terribly civilized.

"The journey not the arrival matters." ~ T.S. Elliott