I had the pleasure of dining at Newtopia Cyder’s Supper Club this past week and although I did miss the first inaugural dinner, the 2nd one definitely did not disappoint. The two chefs that agreed to tackle this massive but expertly led 10 course Cyder and Food Pairing were Kim Roxas from Baker and Olive located in Encinitas and Chef Frankie Sandburg who handled the equally extensive food menu with extremely skill.
When the dinner commenced, we were invited into the brew area for a meet and greet with the other attendees and given our first cyder to enjoy as we introduced ourselves to other guests who would be joining us for the adventure that was to last almost 4 hours! This first cyder was making its debut at Newtopia and was simply called Kissing Points. Its a clean, single varietal refreshing cyder with a tart dry finish that was the perfect way to start this amazing pairing. During the meet and greet we were offered stuffed mushroom caps and morning caught ahi tuna appetizers. The mushroom caps were simply crafted however full of flavor, in fact they were so good I totally forgot to snap a photo for this article! Moving to the ahi tuna appetizer, its was cold option served on a wonton crisp and while being slightly tangy had an amazing bite at the end that paired wonderfully with the before mentioned Kissing Points.
After we were seated, we were surprised with a delightful baby carrot coconut bisque, which was an awesome way to start the dinner after the passed trays mentioned above. I also finished the Kissing Points cyder at this point and found it was also an awesome pairing with the bisque. Right after the bisque we were treated to a watermelon and goat cheese salad with candied pecans and cranberries which was very pleasant with the C&C Hop Factory cyder. The coriander from the cyder and goat cheese paired exceptionally well! The watermelon with the Belgian pineapple cider reduction was very tasty, and was an excellent dressing for the salad.
Course six consisted of the Unicorn Blood cyder with a Basil EVOO, it was so good and quite and refreshing before we moved on to the much desired main course. The main course consisted of beef short rib that was marinated in the Sleepless in Sumatra cyder for 48 hours!! It was a lovely plated dish with potatoes and even edible flowers.. The coffee cyder played well with the short rib and was my favorite dinner pairing of the night. As much as I enjoyed the short rib dish my favorite dish was then overshadowed by the next three desert courses. They were definitely the stars of the night, and enjoyed them all immensely.
The first desert of the evening was an arroz con leche, with a Mexican candy ganache with mango and habanero sea salt. The arroz con leche was very tasty and was very enjoyable when paired with the mexican candy and the sweetness of the mango and slight spice right at the end of habanero sea salt. The Viva Horchata cyder was an awesome pairing for this desert course. Second on the list of the desert courses was a carrot ginger coconut nori cake with a roasted sesame sweet mascarpone sweet cream and a honey ginger balsamic sauce. Even though this dessert seemed very complicated on paper everything was very balanced and the sesame sweet cream was full of flavor and the carrot ginger coconut cake nori cake was just the right amount of savory that balanced with all the sweetness. The last and final desert course was a Chai me a river sorbet, salted caramel sauce with a streusel crumble. This simple desert was packed full of flavor and the cold sorbet was enchanted by the sweetness of the salted caramel sauce.
All in all this 10 course cyder and dinner was exceptionally organized and composed and went off without a hitch! I can’t wait to see what these brilliant and slightly crazy guys come up with the next cyder dinner. If anyone wants to have their taste buds charmed and enjoy some tasty cyder at the same time, I would totally recommend this dinner!
