Trudeau mocked over ‘lame’ Biden state dinner menu
‘You can almost sense that this is the $79 pp option at a mid-tier catering company’
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Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
The menu served at the state dinner of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Joe Biden prompted mockery from Twitter users for being bland.
The 24 March dinner took place during Mr Biden’s first state visit to Canada as president.
“Alberta beef braised short rib” and “Quebec maple mousse cake,” was served, but social media posters mainly took aim at the “white bean hummus”.
The full menu included a first course of Cedar salt and seaweed-crusted rare-seared East Coast yellowfin tuna, the white bean hummus, with cucumber, pickled radish, and bitter greens, along with flaxseed cracker and lemon parsley emulsion.
The main course consisted of the short rib, butternut squash purée and Yukon gold potato pavé, wildflower honey roasted carrots and fine green beans, in addition to Pelee Island cabernet sauvignon jus.
For dessert, wild blueberry and Quebec maple mousse cake was served, as well as screech rum caramel and sweetgrass meringue, along with fresh berries.
Suresh Doss, a food writer, wrote, “this is embarrassing. What a lame menu. ‘White bean hummus’”.
“Jesus eff, if this Canada hosts Biden dinner menu were served in a restaurant it’d be called a hostage taking. This is some joyless, earnest Cancon sh**e,” food writer and restaurant critic Chris Nuttall-Smith said.
“You can almost sense that this is the $79 pp option at a mid-tier catering company,” Ken Hunt added.
One Twitter user said, “this reads like the menu in Air Canada’s executive class”.
“Welcome to Canada, Mr. President. Lemon parsley emulsion?” Chris Johns said.
“At the very least have caribou or elk or bison on the menu,” one Twitter user noted.
“I guess it’d be weird if they just ordered him Chinese takeout. But it’d be way better too,” Farah Ng added.
“They lost me at the white bean hummus and flaxseed cracker parts. Feels like this menu was put together 10 years ago,” Sandy Nayani said.
Journalist Stephen Maher said it “reminds me of the food at the parliamentary restaurant. Hotel cooking for older people who prefer their food on the plain side”.
“It’s the leaders of Canada and America, two moneyed white men, why would anyone expect their meals to have flavour?” one Twitter user asked.
“I would hope that it was well-made and tasty, but yeah…that’s pretty unimaginative. Somebody get Joe a Warden Station beef patty. Something that will excite!” Jerome Persuad added.
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