Catered reception

Leavenworth Street, San Francisco, February 12, 2014—

SOME OF OUR FRIENDS labor under the delusion that we're always fortunate at table — and so we are, quantitatively speaking. No one is more aware than I how blest our tables are.

But this photo may help persuade you that it's not all beer and skittles chez Shere: not to mention port and partridge. No. Occasionally we make do with whatever is provided. Tonight, for example, we attended a reception and symposium, on a subject unrelated to gastronomy, and we let the caterer decide. And this is what he proposed, starting with the unidentifiable dark thing at 11 o'clock in the photo and proceeding clockwise:

Roast beef sandwich with horseradish creamParmesan-inflected dinner rollBread-like canapé with sundried tomato somethingA cherry tomatoA small Hungarian-style pepper, pickledFetaA Greek-style oliveSpring roll enclosing grated carrot, red cabbage, and bits of other raw vegetable

Dessert: a brownie; a miniature Linzer-like tartlet

Semillon blanc, California