On the State Dinner Menu: Maine Lobster, Apple Pie

As Homer Simpson famously said, "You don't win friends with salad." But maybe you can win them with dry-aged ribeye and poached Maine lobster.

Wednesday night's White House state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao and some 200 guests is dishing up decidedly stateside fare. Food doesn't get any more American than meat and potatoes, washed down with apple pie and ice cream.

On the menu: 

• D'Anjou pear salad with farmstead goat cheese, fennel, black walnuts and white balsamic vinegar
   
• Poached Maine lobster with orange-glaze carrots and black trumpet mushrooms
• Wine: Dumul Chardonnay "Russian River" 2008
   
• Lemon sorbet
   
• Dry aged rib-eye with buttermilk crisp onions
• Double stuffed potatoes and creamed spinach
• Wine: Quilceda Creek Cabernet "Columbia Valley" 2005 
   
• Old-fashioned apple pie with vanilla ice cream
• Wine: Poet's Leap Riesling "Botrytis" 2008

The Chinese tend to dislike cheese, so we hope that first course goes down OK. We also hope no unexpected guests turn up this time. 

Unlike the Obamas' previous state dinners, this time there's no guest chef, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Instead, the meal is in the hands of White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford, a Phillippines native appointed by former First Lady Laura Bush in 2005, and White House executive pastry chef William Yosses.

Dinner will be served in the Red, Blue and State Dining rooms.

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Copyright Associated Press / NBC4 Washington

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