Guest Author - Lisa Shea

James Bond lives the elegant life - including a cruise! In Diamonds are Forever, a key scene takes place on a cruise ship.

In the great ending sequence, Bond's wine skills actually come in handy. Bond and his lady-friend are on a cruise ship when the two bad guys come in, posing as a waiter and a wine steward.

Steward: "Wine sir? Mouton-Rothschild '55."

The steward uses a gas ejector to remove the cork. He then gives Bond the cork. Bond smells the cork and also smells the steward's colone and realizes it's the bad guy.

Steward: "A fine selection, if I may say."

Bond: "I'll be the judge of that." ... (sip) ... "The wine is quite excellent, although for such a grand meal I had rather expected a claret."

Steward: "Of course, unfortunately our cellar's rather poorly stocked with clarets."

Bond: "Mouton-Rothschild IS a claret."

If you're not a wine fan, Mouton-Rothschild is a winery in the Bordeaux region of France. The English often call a Bordeaux a "claret", because of their red color.

If you're going to be even more picky about this claret scene, the meal that is being served starts with Oysters "on the Roux" (which should have been pronounced ROO but he pronouses "Rooss"). It has "Tashlich" (Jewish bread??), "Tidbits" (appetizers). Next comes "Prime Rib Au Jour". "Au Jour" means "of the day", which wouldn't really be appropriate for a fancy cruise ship. They would tell you WHAT the prime rib recipe was, not just say "of the day". I think they meant "Prime Rib Au Jus" which is a delicious high end prime rib meal usually reserved for Christmas Day sorts of meals. Next a Salad d'Topia (sort of like a fruit topia is a mix of lots of fruits).

And finally, for dessert, the piece de resistance is La Bomba Surpise. A Bomba is a dome shaped dish, usually an Italian rice dish but also sometimes a dome shaped dessert. The "surprise" in this case is that a real bomb is hidden inside!

Anyway, they should have started with a white wine or even a Champagne for the oysters, salad and appetizers. Then while that Mouton Rothschild would have been OK with a prime rib au jus, something lighter would have been better. Poor Bond!