A Feast with Friends

Omar & Christine Lee and Cathi Hatch

Last week, Ken and I were invited to join Christine & Omar Lee at their elegant lakefront home on Mercer Island for wine and hors d'oeuvres before accompanying them for dinner to their Imperial Garden Seafood Restaurant at the Great Wall Shopping Mall in Kent.  It was a beautiful, sunny evening on the lake and after sampling a number of white wines from countries around the world, we toured their custom 86 foot yacht, The AquaVilla.  Also joining us were Dianna & Bill Fieldstead, Barb & Dale Rasmussen

and Teresa & Arlan Collins.  

The AquaVilla is an exquisite piece of art built in China with every amenity and feature that I have ever seen on a boat; beautiful polished woods, embedded mosaics in the floor, carefully designed staterooms taking advantage of every square inch of space available, a motorized retractable automatic docking and launching design for the dinghy in the lazarette, a pilot's house with enough salon space and a

Dianne & Bill Fieldstead

second galley to serve as the heart of the boat, locking, sliding mirrors in the heads and dozens of other custom details that make the design so fascinating.  See related blog post here when Omar & Christine hosted a boatwarming party for Omar's 60th birthday in 2010.

Following the boat tour, we headed to dinner where we were seated in a private room around a vast round table.  Omar had brought a magnum of Dunham Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon which they had

Dale & Barb Rasmussen

acquired on a previous visit to Dunham Cellars in Walla Walla, signed by both son and winemaker, Eric Dunham and father, Mike Dunham.  With Mike Dunham's passing just a few days prior, we all raised a glass of wine in remembrance and toasted him and his family.

Omar and Christine were the most gracious of hosts.  The first course served was an eye-popping dish that resembled individual bird nests surrounding a carved daikon radish bird, which we named for the evening, the Phoenix Nest.  It was delicious with a crunchy rice cake topped

Arlan & Teresa Collins

with a shrimp and scallop mixture in a savory sauce.  Course after course followed including potstickers, two whole fish baked with vegetables, a light pineapple fried rice, chicken and lettuce wraps, a spicy beef dish and others which I now cannot recall.  Every morsel was delicious!

We took turns going around the table, telling the stories of how each couple met and savoring each food course as it arrived.  When we positively could NOT consume one more bite, Christine had

Cathi & Ken Hatch

the leftovers boxed up and sent them home with us.  What a delightful evening!  Next time, it will be our turn!