Iowa goes hearty and local for Chinese VP dinner
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Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping is seen during a state dinner in his honor at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines, Iowa. |
China's likely next leader sampled a hearty and entirely local selection of Midwestern cuisine on a visit to Iowa, with the chef selecting pork, beef and other produce all from the area.
Iowa, a major agricultural exporter, welcomed Vice President Xi Jinping and some 650 other guests in a gala dinner Wednesday night under the rotunda of the State Capitol building, one of the most formal venues in Des Moines.
With the exception of green tea served at the end, the hosts focused exclusively on Midwestern US fare with a dinner that started with bacon, lettuce and tomato bites and smoked trout served with a cranberry compote.
The main course was bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin with cider and green peppercorns, along with Angus beef tenderloin and stuffed-twice baked potatoes with local Maytag white cheddar cheese. Vegetarians had an option with wild rice and portobello mushrooms.
"We thought that while in Iowa, eat Iowa's best. We could have done some Asian fusion, but they probably get enough of that and we'd like to show him what we do in Iowa," head chef Matt Uitermarkt told AFP.
Michael LaValle, the general manager of the Des Moines Embassy Club which was in charge of the food, said that virtually everything on the menu came from within a 100-mile (160-kilometer) radius of the city.
"Thirty years ago it used to be a lot more challenging than it was to do that, but we have a resurgent movement with boutique, smaller and often high-end producers" in Iowa, he said.
For dessert, the hosts offered cupcakes of apple pie, blue cheese and sweet corn cheesecake. Drinks came from the local Summerset winery and Madhouse Brewery -- and root beer was also on offer.
Xi, who is expected to become president next year, chose Iowa in part because he visited the town of Muscatine in 1985 when he was a low-level official on an exchange.
Experts see his trip to the United States, particularly the stop in Iowa, as a way to show a gentler side both to Americans and to television viewers in China.