“CAN DO”

A Vacuum Packed Tribute to the Unheralded TINacious Origins

Of CANtemporary AmeriCAN Gastronomy

At Nana’s Restaurant

In Durham

On Sunday, March 28, 2004

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The CANapés

Tuna Tartare with Caviar Cream

A Tribute to Chicken of the Sea

Fried Oysters on Ritz Crackers

Honoring Smoked Oysters with a Hint of the Tint of Tin

Ca’del Bosca Franciacorta Brut NV

The First CANcept:

Porcini Soup with Cinnamon

In Praise of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup

The highest-grade (i.e., postgraduate) porcini mushrooms have been confined and consigned to be redefined with leeks, garlic, and wine imbued with a graciously skewed food mood arising from a stock made of the very same plush mushrooms and cooked patiently for hours (on end). A sherry finish arrives at the finish.

Lustau Amontillado

The Second Chaîne ChiCANery:

Octopus Tentacle Terrine

Inspired By the Wham of SPAM

East coast cephalopods have involuntarily donated their disarming tactical tentacles, all eight to be ate after having come to grips with a triple braising and equivalently wrenching blanching, then submitting to emboldened molding, the end product thereof served up with a tomato vinaigrette blended perceptibly if not receptively with the worth-praising braising effluvial residuum.

Domaine Weinbach 2001 Tokay Pinot Gris, Cuvée Laurence

The Third CANcoction:

Sardines Stuffed with Fennel

With All Due Respect to Packed Cans Thereof

Corpulent and opulent sardines imported from the west coast have been wrapped rapturously in pancetta and stuffed with fennel only to be grilled and subsequently/consequently served with a garlic aioli zealously guarded by exotic if not erotic homemade crackers.

Hiedler 2001 Gruner Veltliner, Thal

The Intermezzo Promoting Upstanding CANviviality:

Meyer Lemon Sorbet with Vodka

The Fourth CANtribution:

Squab Noodle Soup

Remembering Chicken Noodle Soup with Metallic Nuances

California squab have been fastidiously and insidiously roasted together with their previously owned bones and their fresh flesh minus their dermis and epidermis. Meanwhile, compulsively procured noodles have been submerged in a mirepoix with onions, carrots, celery, and parsnips, the emulsion ultimately clarified to serve as a medium for the broth-bathing, self-exposing torso of the poultry morsel.

Domaine Serene 2001, Yamhill Cuvée

The Fifth InCANtation:

Braised Veal Cheek Bourgignon

Aspiring to Replicate Dinty Moore’s Beef Stew

Calves have been de-cheeked – their chins generally intact - with the resultant viand seared and braised with an added mirepoix to thrive in a reminiscence of the essence of the pleasing braising liquid plus unruffled truffled butter, the resultant presentation vibrantly enlightened and heightened by a potato purée and the understated austere mere mirepoix.

Château Pichon-Longueville Baron 1995, Paulliac

And in CANclusion: A CANucopia

In Adulation of Surreptitiously Syrupy Fruit Salad

A strawberry and non-hemorrhagic blood orange sauce brings to fruition our exposure to ambrosia with low carb rhubarb and peacefully coexistent coconut ice cream on a serious croustade crater.

Château Joly 1999 Juraçon

And Then: Churchill Vintage Port 1995

[N.B.: The Triangle Bailliage Extends an Apology to Chef Boyardee]

NANA’S

Chef-Propriétaire – Scott Howell

Sous-Chef – Louis Botta

Pastry Chef – Kathy Edwards

Maitre d’/Sommelier – Phillip Sherman