Back on April 15th, everyone's favorite day of the year, a local restaurant and some writers put together a great tweet up to celebrate "Tax Day" with some great food and wine. The event was hosted by @BlackPearlSEA, @NorthESea, and @Seattle_Events and was held at Black Pearl Restaurant's Wedgewood location in North Seattle. We had a great little group in attendance to try out a variety of dishes from Black Pearl as well as a number of different wines donated for the event by @NWTotemCellars and @grlakewine. There were some faces I knew already, including @jenkmiller, @colbyjn, @BlackPearlSEA and @chrispirillo as well many new people I had never met before: @NorthESea, @Seattle_Events, @posiegirl, @hnlmark, @bananablossom, @danaek, @belvoir, @mypartini, and @chefamadeus. It was great to meet so many new people and share thoughts on the amazing food and wines we were able to try. The amazing Annie @BlackPearlSEA worked with @yasharseattle to pair the wine and food dishes for the event.
The menu started out with a spicy sesame chicken paired with a Spanish Xarelo donated by @grlakewine. This was very fresh chicken in an amazing sauce. This paired nicely with this very refreshing white, one I love to call a "sunshine wine".
Next we moved on to a spicy fish in szechuan sauce, which we tasted along with a Randall Harris Sauvignon Blanc, which was also donated by @grlakewine. This was a very tender fish with a very spicy flavor with the aftertaste. The very fruity and flowery Sauv Blanc was a refreshing and perfect pair for this spicy dish. This was a big favorite of many in attendance!
Next we tried a salt and pepper crispy fried calamari paired with the @NWTotemCellars Salish. This 60% riesling and 40% viognier was a nice sweet wine that complimented this lightly breaded, but spicy, calamari.
We then moved on to beef chow mein with homemade noodles, which was paired with the @NWTotemCellars Potlatch, a 52% Syrah, 47% Tempranillo and 1% Petit Verdot. This was by far my favorite dish of the entire evening. Just saying "homemade noodles" does not do this dish justice. The noodles are made in-house daily and are thicker, bigger and better than any chow mein noodles I have ever had. I could just eat an entire bowl of these on their own and be completely satisfied. This is a must try when dining at @BlackPearlSEA. The flavors of the paired wine really stood out and this was a great blend.
Next up were pot sticker dumplings in both pork and vegetarian flavors. This was served along with a Randall Harris Syrah, donated by @grlakewine. The pork dumpling was my favorite of the two flavors, and was even better with some soy sauce. The Randall Harris was a very flavorful Syrah that was very tasty along with the pork flavors.
We moved on to a mongolian beef, paired with the @NWTotemCellars Syrah. The mongolian beef was very spicy and very tasty and I was amazed at how well the Syrah tempered the spicy nature of the beef. I had never thought about wine pairings with spicy food before, but this was definitely one I will be trying again. I was happy to get to take home a bit of leftovers of the beef, it was fantastic!
Last, but certainly not least, we tasted some shrimp cakes along with the @NWTotemCellars Late Harvest Viognier. The shrimp cakes had a wonderful sweet plum sauce accompanying them, which was terrific along with the sweet Late Harvest Viognier. As @chrispirillo commented on the wine: "this tastes like skittles!". It was a very pleasant dessert wine that I look forward to trying again!
Overall, my first visit to Black Pearl Restaurant was amazing and I look forward to dining there again. I couldn't believe the extent of dishes we were able to try, and we barely even grazed the surface of all they have to offer on their menu. I was excited to see that they offer delivery, but disappointed when I realized I live outside their delivery area! I'll just have to make the drive! It was great to try some new types of food and wine pairings, and it gave me some great ideas for the future. Thanks to all who organized this great "Tax Day" event.
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