Trump, Xi to taste wine served to Nixon during his China visit

Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump will be served the same wine that US President Richard Nixon drank with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai during Nixon’s 1972 visit to China at a state dinner at the White House, press service of the residence reports, citing a statement by US First Lady Melania Trump.

According to the statement, at the beginning of the dinner on the evening of September 24, the leaders, their spouses and members of the delegations will raise glasses of Schramsberg “Blanc de Noirs”, a California sparkling wine.

It will be served in remembrance of the historic “toast to peace” made during Nixon’s visit to China, which marked the beginning of the normalisation of relations between the United States and China.

The first course will consist of crispy pancetta, a type of pork belly, fricassee of wild mushrooms and yellow squash velouté with scallion oil.

The main course will feature sesame-crusted sea bass with braised Chinese cabbage, roasted aubergine and green sauce.

For dessert, guests will be served vanilla cream with honeybee ice cream made from honey produced by bees kept in hives on the White House grounds, walnut frangipane and sour cherry confit.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov