The annual off-the-record lunch the White House holds for news anchors before the State of the Union is quite the affair. Luckily, we have Fox News Channel’s Shepard Smith to fill us in on the essential details.
Smith didn’t drink, but he named MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow as someone who sampled the Hartford Court chardonnay. Smith regrets his decision not to indulge but said, “I was afraid I’d be a little buzzed out here, so I had water instead.”
The appetizer salad – crisp baby iceberg lettuce with avocado and applewood bacon cracklings – might not be approved by the First Lady, but Smith was a huge fan.
“Applewood bacon cracklings, it turns out, are the best food in the world, Smith said”
Smith also seemed impressed by the tomatoes, which someone apparently boiled and skinned. Next up was an aged rib-eye steak, thinly sliced, with chorizo and black bean chimichurri.
The entree came with caramelized plantains, which Smith joked had a hidden meaning. “I thought maybe it was a nod to the new Cuba policy,” Smith said.
For desert, grapefruit pavlova was served and Smith resorted to Wikipedia to figure out what he was eating. Smith sat by NBC’s Brian Williams and across from ABC’s David Muir… check out the video to see if the White House took a subtle jab at Fox anchors on the place cards.