Not long after we got to Austin, we heard about Dai Due, a roving supper club. Everything we heard was good: excellent food, nice people, great locations, etc. The club's website offers this description:
Our 4-10 course dinners are prepared with only locally produced, seasonal ingredients, grown with sustainable agricultural methods which are purchased from Farmers’ Markets or directly from local farms. A complimentary aperitif, locally made, of course, is offered before a seated dinner with old and new friends. Live music is included, and guests are encouraged to bring their own wine or other drinks.
A few of our friends had been to Dai Due events, which happen about 3 times a month, and had good things to say about it. So we checked the calendar and found a few upcoming dinners that sounded good ... but by the time we tried to reserve our spots, there weren't any. Finally, after reading about a seafood supper that was being held close to our home in July, we jumped on it and successfully reserved seats for three of our friends and us.
As the variety of fruits and vegetables tapers off in the heat, Gulf seafood is arriving with the most diversity and quality of the year. Tuna, jacks, snapper, dorado (mahi mahi), grouper and ling are active and available, along with deep- and shallow-water shrimp, squid and “by-catch” - the delicious and oft-thrown-away morsels caught in the shrimpers’ nets. We will present 10 courses of seafood, summer vegetables and herbs, followed by local cheeses and hot-weather fruits.
Our Dai Due experience took place at Habitat Suites, a nearby hotel that features a great garden from which some of the night's ingredients were obtained. The meal started with some hors d'ouvres (great fried squash blossoms) and a rose wine made right here in Texas by Becker Vinyards. We also had a chance to meet the hosts: Jesse Griffiths, the chef, and his wife, Tamara Mayfield.
Chef Jesse, serving tomatoes stuffed with yellowfin tuna confit
Coctail hour was followed by five small courses of seafood, cheese and dessert. Honestly, I thought every single thing was tasty. Stand-outs? The squid braised with chorizo was seriously good, and the tuna tartare was ... well ... I'm a sucker for good tuna. And some sweet fish soup! I took a picture of the menu, mostly so we'd remember the night, but maybe also to make you a little jealous! C'mon, it's 103 degrees outside -- we have to have something going in our favor!
The menu -- click to enlarge (watch out if you're hungry)
Our table, having fun
Austin jazz legend Stanley "Cool Pops" Smith
Verdict? Sometimes it isn't easy to eat that way, in little bites of lots of different things, and while our stomachs got full, our wallets emptied out. But as on occasional thing to do for fun, I don't think I've eaten as well since coming here. So check the calendar before you visit, and maybe you too can Dai Due.
Done!
