White House Executive Pastry Chef, Susie Morrison, shows the dessert called "a stroll through the garden" and a lightly buttered artisanal bread accented with a delicate egg custard including a Meyer lemon curd and lychee sorbet, during a preview in the State Dining Room of White House in Washington, Thursday, Sept 24, 2015, for the state dinner of the visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping. [Photo/IC] |
Plenty of things will be different at Friday's White House state dinner for China, ranging from the setting to the decor to the post-dinner entertainment. But in trying to figure out what to change, the White House decided to keep one thing the same: Maine lobster is back on the menu.
The lobster will be poached in butter and served with traditional rice noodle rolls embedded with spinach, shiitake mushrooms and leeks when President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, welcome President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to dinner in the East Room with a few hundred guests.
When then-President Hu Jintao was the guest in 2011, the lobster was also poached and served with glazed carrots and black trumpet mushrooms.
"Maine lobster is in season," White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford said Thursday, as she and other White House staff showed off the table setting, menu items, decor and entertainment for the news media.