It’s good to be the King… Robert Baratheon’s Ideal Meal

No wonder King Robert is so large, and there’s little question why the crown was six million gold dragons in debt.

Cheese.

And ale. And venison, mead, bacon, wine, tarts, and a plethora of other tasty, tasty foodstuffs. This meal left two of us utterly stuffed. The roasted veg were all soft and delicious, slightly caramelized from cooking in duck fat and cider. The venison was simply mindblowing. I have no words. The desserts were a wonderful conclusion, and proof of my theory that dessert occupies a different space in the stomach than does dinner. Sweet and delicious, we managed several of each before succumbing to a sensory overload. The honeycakes (forthcoming!) were absolutely divine, though.
The Menu:

• Assorted Cheeses
• Roasted Vegetable Medley, with a splash of cider
• Red and Golden Beets
• Mustard-Stout Deviled Eggs
• Drunken Venison Steaks, marinated in mead and wrapped in boar bacon
• Honeycakes with Lavender icing
• Blackberry Jam tarts
• Wine-Poached Pears
• Lots and lots of Dark Beer

Overall, we got a ton of great suggestions for this post. Rich foods and drinks are the name of the game, such that you’d risk a brush with gout after just one meal like this… After very careful consideration, we had to agree with Katy and Mary that after Cersei’s gloating, boar is much more her dish than it is Robert’s, despite his delight in hunting them. However, we couldn’t resist slipping just a little bit in there in the form of boar bacon, wrapped around the venison rib chops. In this way, both the hunter and the hunted come together in one dish. After all, he is what he eats, and that is a stag.

The venison is topped with a savory-mead reduction sauce and strips of boar bacon. Sheer decadence, and possibly the best tasting dish I’ve ever made.

For sides, we made an assortment of roasted veg, including leek, carrot, and potato (yes, he is a meat and potato man, despite the pseudo-medieval setting…). The red and gold beets represent the Lannisters, while the deviled duck eggs are made with mustard and stout.

We liked Dinofsilence‘s suggestion of a range of dishes that represent the king both in his youth and as we see him in GoT. For desserts, we included delicate honeycake topped with lavender as homage to Lyanna Stark, blackberry tarts (“You smell like blackberry jam!”), and mini wine-poached pears.

To sum up, the foods were made with stout, mead, wine, and cider. Now that’s a meal fit for a king! Our beverage consultant recommends Schneider Weisse for a hefeweizen or Kapuziner Weissbier Schwarz for the first half of the meal, then one of the Dansk Mjods for the second half (we used Viking Blood for the marinade/reduction). A bit of cider and red wine won’t go amiss amongst the spread, and you really can’t have to much to drink if you’re Robert Baratheon…

Other great ideas included:

• King Crab legs, broken open with a Hammer, suggested by Richard
• A medieval style “Turducken”, with boar, pheasant, and quail, suggested by Christopher
• The incredibly delicious sounding wild game goulash, suggested by Pitzur
• Fried Calamari, to thumb the nose at the Greyjoys
• Stephen Scott’s suggestion of pickled eggs (the sourness is for his innumerable dalliances with whores)