Here is how to have a perfect day: start with a yoga session in the morning,
...
... get a massage in the afternoon, ...
... and head out to the French Laundry in the evening.
Everything about the French Laundry is first rate, from the presentation
of the napkins on.
Tonight's menu.
The lovely couple. This was officially in celebration of Kimberly's birthday
the week before, but it took an extra week of trying before Wade could
score a reservation at the restaurant.
Our first little amuse bouche: on the right are Gruyere cheese puffs,
and on the left is a salmon taste. Think "lox and bagel" to
the nth degree.
The bagel is transformed into a crunchy littel cone, filled with cream
cheese and herbs, and topped with a bite of salmon.
The French Laundry's signature dish: it is called Oysters and pearls.
The base is a warm tapioca. On the left is the oyster, and the "pearls"
are white sturgeon caviar. Absolutely sublime.
Kimberly coming back from a brief break. Doesn't she look lovely?
A bread course with salted butter on the left and unsalted butter on
the right, both from local dairy farms.
This is a chilled summer soup, featuring compressed melons, lime gelee,
and cilantro shoots. The base is carrot creme.
Sadly, we lost our heads and starting eating this one before we remembered
to take a picture. This is Japanese bluenose bass with tomato tartare,
avocado mousse, and cucumber.
Another fish course that was awesome: a Georges Bank scallop covered
with a banana panade (foam). It sits on a bed of cashews, peaches, watercress,
and curry.
Oops, again the scent overcame our sensibilities, and we started to eat
before we remembered to get a photograph. This is the lacquered pork belly,
featuring a glaze that was just incredible. It is served on Brentwood
corn veloute and with garden potatoes and petite lettuces.
The most over-the-top extravagant course of the evening: tagliatelle
with shaved Australian black winter truffles. First they bring the humidor
with the truffles...
We thought they were going to grate a sprinkle of truffle on top of the
pasta. As it turns out, they used a mandolin and completely buried the
tagliatelle until you could only see truffle. Here we have eaten a few
bites so you can see the pasta.
Wade's face at the truffle decadence.
We upgraded one of the dinners and split the courses. In the back is
the normal Elysian Fields farm lamb. The funny part of this was that Kimberly
could not believe that the vegetable was eggplant, because she hates eggplant
and she loved this.
On the left is the charcoal-grilled Japanese Wagyu beef, served with
the Swiss chard and Chanterelle mushrooms on the side. The Wagyu was perfectly
done, of course, with a crispy crust on the outside and medium rare in
the center. It was so perfectly marbled and rich it was almost like bacon,
and the Chanterelles were perfect with it.
On to the desserts. This first dessert, the cheese course, was actually
the low point of the evening. It was a bizarre combination of flavors
that just didn't work. We each tried one bite and gave up, and the people
at the next table did exactly the same thing. The waiter was upset and
wanting to try to bring us something different, but we were filling up.
A second dessert course: the most concentrated, flavorful raspberry torte
you could imagine, with pistachio in the base and on top.
Another dessert course: popcorn-flavored ice cream with a sugary olive
oil foam on the side.
Yet another dessert: a cylinder of dark chocolate that was crisped, containing
a custard and topped with crumbled toffee. It is accompanied by your choice
of chocolate truffle.
Another dessert course, featuring (1) chocolate-covered dark-roasted
macadamia nuts, (2) two flavors of macaroons, (3) fresh donut holes, and
(4) a capuccino mousse. Are you full yet? By the way, the roasting of
the macadamias made them ten times better.
After the meal, we take a quick peek into the temporary kitchen, which
is housed essentially in a big shipping container.
They brough us in for a quick peek.
Out back, they are preparing for the new kitchen being built.
As if that wasn't enough, they sent us home with these two tins of awesome
shortbread cookies, a copy of the menu, and a booklet about where they
sourced all of their ingredients.
The bill mentioned the option of donating to the Bocuse d'Or, which we
looked up because we weren't familiar with it. It turns out that this
is the semi-annual "olympics" of French cuisine, and the American
team had just taken second place this year, when we had never been higher
than sixth. The American team was led by Thomas Keller and his sous chefs
from the French Laundry, along with Daniel Boulud.
