When something slightly bad turns into something really good

In the middle of July, my car suddenly demanded to be taken to a garage immediately. In the middle of July is also when half of the Norwegian population is on holiday and you have to wait for a week before anybody are willing to take a look at your car. So there I were, suddenly left to commute to work by bus. Afraid of missing the bus,  I was at the bus stop 15 minutes early, and just as I walked towards the bus stop, one of my colleagues stopped his car and asked me if I wanted a ride. I definitely wanted a ride.

I must admit that most of the time, work is so busy that I only know what my closest colleagues do in their spare time, but half an hours car drive is a good way of bridging that gap. We almost immediately started talking about food and wine, and I also mentioned that I tried to share some of my cooking experiences in this blog. Later that same day I had an invitation to start up a food club in my mail box.

Yesterday we had our very first meeting at Claudio's place to discuss how we were to organize ourselves and to get to know each other a little better. The most important thing to us, is that we all share a passion for food and wine and that we are eager to learn and challenge ourselves. Claudio had prepared some delicious tapas dishes. He also showed us how he made his beautiful Caesar Salad, a perfect starter, how he serves his Carpaccio and his version of a beautiful focaccia. Heelco had prepared a really tasty Gazpacho and introduced us to the "little piglet" wine (The Squealing Pig Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, 2011(New Zealand) which was very fruity, "green" and fresh. Claudio served a more mature white the Cono Sur Sauvignon Blanc Reserva, 2011(Chile). Zain , had brought two different red wines. The first we tasted was a ZenatoValpolicella Classico Superiore from 2010 (Italy), a young and light wine. The other, the

Vigneti di Torbe Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso 2010 (Italy)  was full-bodied and tasted more of dark berries. 

It was a fantastic evening. I do not think we managed to conclude on exactly what "format" our cooking club is going to have, but I am sure we will learn a lot and have a great time together.
For our next meeting I will bring my camera and my note book, I must excuse the poor quality of the pictures in this blog posting, and my somewhat "patchy" description of the wine.
(All in all, I am quite happy my car decided to go on strike in July.)

Claudio's Caesar Salad

Carpaccio