Send 2006 out with celebratory feast
New Year’s Eve is a night to celebrate.
Tradition calls for an evening of celebrating right up to first moment of the new year and greeting it with a champagne toast. For four decades the celebration included Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians playing “Auld Lang Syne” from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue in New York City
Since 1972 Dick Clark has welcomed in the new year from Times Square, counting down the final seconds of the old year while a 1,070-pound, 6-foot diameter Waterford crystal ball drops, reaching the bottom at midnight.
For those looking for something festive closer to home, there’s the annual New Year’s celebration at Spokane Valley’s Mirabeau Park Hotel.
As in years’ past, the hotel will serve a feast at its MAX restaurant and feature an evening of live music, this year provided by the Aaron Richner Band.
And, because the traditional champagne toast can begin early, the hotel also features room packages for couples who would prefer to stay overnight and start the new year with breakfast out.
But it’s the party that’s guaranteed to create a special memory for the final night of 2006.
The dinner starts with an appetizer of Hudson Valley foie gras, pan purdue, pink peppercorns, grilled stone fruit and a reduction of aged balsamic vinegar.
For starters, diners have a choice of: lobster cream bisque, featuring caramelized fennel concase and tomato aspic; a whole leaf hearts of romaine Caesar salad, featuring a classic dressing of garlic, olive oil and lemon, parmesan tuile and kalamata olive crostini; or Max’s house salad of winter greens with shaved parmesan, spiced pepitas and huckleberry balsamic dressing.
The Intermezzo course is mango-huckleberry sparkling ice, accented with black peppercorns and kaffir lime leaf.
Crowning the feast is a choice of entrée. MAX’s USDA Prime sirloin, served with smoked onion port demi, baseball cut, whipped Yukon gold potatoes and garlic seared broccolini; or Chilean seabass seared with coriander, saffron-vanilla sage, fennel pollen, sautéed rocket (Arugula) and lemon risotto; or the elk porterhouse steak served with golden chanterelle mushrooms, gorgonzola butter, a port wine reduction, herbed fingerling potatoes and roasted winter vegetables; or a New Zealand lamb shank braised in an aromatic veal stock and served with parmesan-dusted rosemary polenta cakes, caramelized pearl onions and roasted winter vegetables; or tournedos of pan-seared filet mignon served with a Dijon-Madeira demi glace, three-cheese au-gratin potato and garlic seared broccolini; or giant tiger prawns served with jasmine-anise rice, root vegetables, a black fig-tomato sambal and aromatic coconut sauce.
And if that doesn’t send 2006 out with a contented sigh from your stomach, nothing will.