Lis's and my anniversary dinner
Jun. 15th, 2006 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasTwo years ago, for our anniversary, Lis and I went to a wonderful restaurant called the Craigie Street Bistrot, on Craigie St, outside of Harvard Square. I wrote about the meal we had then. And we went back again this year, last night.
Okay, so our anniversary was on the thirteenth, and last night was the fourteenth, but the Chef's Whim is on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
So, let me tell you about THIS trip.
Two years ago, we spent $90 on the entire evening, for two hours of good food and company. This year, we spent over twice that, because a) the price has gone up $10 per person, b) they now added an option where you can get an EXTRA two courses for an extra $15 per person, and we got wine with dinner, which we didn't do last time.
And we got THREE hours of good food and company. And it was definitely worth it.
Six course tasting menu instead of four. Here's what we got:
First, the chef sent us champagne cocktails, on the house, in celebration of our anniversary. They were wonderful -- I wrote a tasting note of "almost like ginger ale, but rounder." And, of course, better. The cocktail added sweetness and some fullness, and it was actually a decent champagne, although not so top-notch that one would be upset by adding things to it.
Then I ordered, on the waiter's recommendation, a half-bottle of the 2000 Trimbach Riesling. I was looking for good links online that would have tasting notes for it, to explain the thing, but I'm only finding notes for the 2002 and 2003, which are totally different from what I drank. I'm finding online prices for the 2000 for as little as $24 for a half-bottle, which amazes me, because the restaurant price was less than twice that, and I'm used to a markup of three to four times. I mean, $24 for a retail half-bottle, and we got it, in a restaurant with full wine service, for only $46.
If you can find this wine, you have GOT to try it.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jehanna, I'm looking at you.
The wine is wacky-nifty. It's the weirdest thing EVER. I don't know if I liked all the notes, but I found it really, really cool.
So, you open the bottle and its initial nose is, honestly, petrol. And it drinks with an almost pickle-y taste for the first couple minutes. Then it opens up, and becomes floral, and a kind of astringent taste. And then it has an alcohol-y nose, and gets a little sulphur-y, and it keeps changing over the couple hours I was drinking it. I mean, by dessert, it had almost turned into what you EXPECT a Riesling to taste like. I don't know where the sweetness came from, but it did.
And, of course, the rolls on the table are baked in-house, and are wonderful, but I'm assuming y'all know what really good simple bread tastes like -- the kind made from flour, water, yeast, and salt, and maybe using steam to crisp up the outside. Except they do it better than just about anyone else.
So, on to the tastings.
The first course was an arctic char pate. They didn't call it a "pate" -- I don't remember the word they used, because I didn't recognize it. I think it was something like "reillete", or "reyete" or something like that. But it was arctic char, made into a pate consistency, with some lemon, and other flavors, with radish slices and mixed fresh herbs on top, and served with brioche toast.
I don't normally like fish. Most people who know me know that. I usually will say simply that "I don't like fish", because it is simpler. The truth is, "I don't like fish that tastes like it is more than a couple hours old." I liked this. A whole lot. It was amazing.
After a while, we got the second course. It was bluefish, served on a bed of wilted greens (I forget what kind, but they were good), with a reduced pan-juice sauce with brown butter and sherry. The bluefish had been caught that morning, fishing off a beach in South America. I forget exactly where in South America, but the point is, it was AMAZINGLY fresh. Looking back over my notes from two years ago, I note that we had bluefish then, too -- and this one and that one are the two best pieces of bluefish I've ever eaten.
Looking around at the other diners who were getting the Chef's Whim (and you're not guaranteed to get the same thing as the people at the next table, but you often do), I think that this was one of the two courses that we wouldn't have gotten if we went for four instead of six courses. This fact makes me very happy that we went for the extended menu.
The third course was a ragout with forest mushrooms, fresh greens including fiddlehead ferns, sorrel sauce, a lightly poached farm-fresh organic egg (laid that morning), and two pieces of blood sausage that had been made in-house.
I like blood sausage. And this was, without a doubt, the absolute best blood sausage I've ever had. The fiddleheads were perfect -- which isn't easy: you pretty much have to pick them in the right ten minutes of the year -- the egg was amazing, the mushrooms were amazing.
Oh, yeah. The other thing I can't stand are mushrooms. Except these. These were amazing.
The sorrel sauce might have been a little overpowering, but it was served on the side, so you could add only as much as you wanted.
Then we got to the fourth course, which was the other course that we got from the extended menu. It was a soup. A beef bullion with fresh ginger, confit, and forest mushrooms, among other flavors. It had an almost overpowering umami taste -- it was wonderful. And it was served with two pork croûtons. I bet you didn't know that you could make croûtons out of pork, did you? They are the same size and crunchiness as regular bread croûtons, but made out of pork and pork fat. The waiter told us that the staff, among themselves, refer to them as "porky croûtons of love". And I see why. You could put them in the soup, or you could just eat them plain. I did one of each.
So then to the fifth course. Which, Lis and I agreed, was the weakest of the five courses, even though it was still amazingly good. It was a hangar steak from an organically raised Vermont cow, with a medallion of bone marrow, a burgundy-snail sauce on top, and a green garlic sauce on the side. I switched to a different wine for this course -- I got a half glass of Burgundy (I forgot to ask the vintage and vineyard), which I didn't write any tasting notes about, besides "earthy nose", because I just started drinking it, because it was good.
So, I ate a snail. It was pretty good. And the sauce was good. Honestly, the weakest part of the course was the steak itself -- and that was because it was too heavily spiced. It had something of a pastrami flavor. Which I generally quite like, but I felt like it was fighting against the other flavors. I think I would have preferred the steak cooked without the spice rub, and just going with the flavors from the sauces. It was an AMAZINGLY tender piece of beef, and I frankly could have eaten it with no additional preparation, besides being cooked to perfection the way that it was.
Then came dessert. With dessert, I finished off the Riesling, which, by that time, had magically turned into a dessert wine, and Lis ordered a glass of a dessert wine -- she let the waiter choose which one, as he knew what he'd be bringing, and could match a wine to it.
Again, I forgot to get the name of the wine. Which is a pity, because Lis LOVED it. It was sweet, obviously, almost as sweet as a plum wine with a similar mouthfeel and drinking characteristics, but with more of an apple-y, cider-y flavor. Since Lis's two favorite alcohols are plum wine and cider, we were very impressed with the waiter's psychic powers, in finding the PERFECT wine for her.
We got two desserts, and decided to trade them. Lis was served, and I ate, a rhubarb-and-dried fruit dish with a crumble topping, and homemade vanilla ice cream. I thought it was AMAZING -- a pretty simple, basic dessert concept, done just right. A similar effect to, like, a Brown Betty, something in that family of desserts. Done perfectly.
What I got, and Lis ate, was something like a flan in texture, but white. On the side were blood orange slices and fennel sauce, and the flan was beautifully spiced. I really, really liked it, but liked the crumble better, and Lis liked the flan better -- it was sweeter. I only had one bite, so I don't really have a description of it, except, "yum."
We spent an absolutely lovely three hours there, enjoying each other's company, and the food, and the wine. It was an amazing meal, but, if you'll excuse the glurge, the best part of it was being with my wife.
Yes, the waiter got a really good tip, for recommending the Trimbach, and for choosing the perfect wine for Lis for dessert.
ETA: Lis reminded me that this post isn't actually done! After dessert, we got another on-the-house course compliments of the chef. It was a champagne-orange soup with a yogurt sorbet. It was bitter, and sweet, and bubbly, and refreshing, and amazing. It was the best possible capper to the meal.
Also, the chef came out, and we got to thank him for the amazing meal in person.
Okay, so our anniversary was on the thirteenth, and last night was the fourteenth, but the Chef's Whim is on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
So, let me tell you about THIS trip.
Two years ago, we spent $90 on the entire evening, for two hours of good food and company. This year, we spent over twice that, because a) the price has gone up $10 per person, b) they now added an option where you can get an EXTRA two courses for an extra $15 per person, and we got wine with dinner, which we didn't do last time.
And we got THREE hours of good food and company. And it was definitely worth it.
Six course tasting menu instead of four. Here's what we got:
First, the chef sent us champagne cocktails, on the house, in celebration of our anniversary. They were wonderful -- I wrote a tasting note of "almost like ginger ale, but rounder." And, of course, better. The cocktail added sweetness and some fullness, and it was actually a decent champagne, although not so top-notch that one would be upset by adding things to it.
Then I ordered, on the waiter's recommendation, a half-bottle of the 2000 Trimbach Riesling. I was looking for good links online that would have tasting notes for it, to explain the thing, but I'm only finding notes for the 2002 and 2003, which are totally different from what I drank. I'm finding online prices for the 2000 for as little as $24 for a half-bottle, which amazes me, because the restaurant price was less than twice that, and I'm used to a markup of three to four times. I mean, $24 for a retail half-bottle, and we got it, in a restaurant with full wine service, for only $46.
If you can find this wine, you have GOT to try it.
jehanna, I'm looking at you.The wine is wacky-nifty. It's the weirdest thing EVER. I don't know if I liked all the notes, but I found it really, really cool.
So, you open the bottle and its initial nose is, honestly, petrol. And it drinks with an almost pickle-y taste for the first couple minutes. Then it opens up, and becomes floral, and a kind of astringent taste. And then it has an alcohol-y nose, and gets a little sulphur-y, and it keeps changing over the couple hours I was drinking it. I mean, by dessert, it had almost turned into what you EXPECT a Riesling to taste like. I don't know where the sweetness came from, but it did.
And, of course, the rolls on the table are baked in-house, and are wonderful, but I'm assuming y'all know what really good simple bread tastes like -- the kind made from flour, water, yeast, and salt, and maybe using steam to crisp up the outside. Except they do it better than just about anyone else.
So, on to the tastings.
The first course was an arctic char pate. They didn't call it a "pate" -- I don't remember the word they used, because I didn't recognize it. I think it was something like "reillete", or "reyete" or something like that. But it was arctic char, made into a pate consistency, with some lemon, and other flavors, with radish slices and mixed fresh herbs on top, and served with brioche toast.
I don't normally like fish. Most people who know me know that. I usually will say simply that "I don't like fish", because it is simpler. The truth is, "I don't like fish that tastes like it is more than a couple hours old." I liked this. A whole lot. It was amazing.
After a while, we got the second course. It was bluefish, served on a bed of wilted greens (I forget what kind, but they were good), with a reduced pan-juice sauce with brown butter and sherry. The bluefish had been caught that morning, fishing off a beach in South America. I forget exactly where in South America, but the point is, it was AMAZINGLY fresh. Looking back over my notes from two years ago, I note that we had bluefish then, too -- and this one and that one are the two best pieces of bluefish I've ever eaten.
Looking around at the other diners who were getting the Chef's Whim (and you're not guaranteed to get the same thing as the people at the next table, but you often do), I think that this was one of the two courses that we wouldn't have gotten if we went for four instead of six courses. This fact makes me very happy that we went for the extended menu.
The third course was a ragout with forest mushrooms, fresh greens including fiddlehead ferns, sorrel sauce, a lightly poached farm-fresh organic egg (laid that morning), and two pieces of blood sausage that had been made in-house.
I like blood sausage. And this was, without a doubt, the absolute best blood sausage I've ever had. The fiddleheads were perfect -- which isn't easy: you pretty much have to pick them in the right ten minutes of the year -- the egg was amazing, the mushrooms were amazing.
Oh, yeah. The other thing I can't stand are mushrooms. Except these. These were amazing.
The sorrel sauce might have been a little overpowering, but it was served on the side, so you could add only as much as you wanted.
Then we got to the fourth course, which was the other course that we got from the extended menu. It was a soup. A beef bullion with fresh ginger, confit, and forest mushrooms, among other flavors. It had an almost overpowering umami taste -- it was wonderful. And it was served with two pork croûtons. I bet you didn't know that you could make croûtons out of pork, did you? They are the same size and crunchiness as regular bread croûtons, but made out of pork and pork fat. The waiter told us that the staff, among themselves, refer to them as "porky croûtons of love". And I see why. You could put them in the soup, or you could just eat them plain. I did one of each.
So then to the fifth course. Which, Lis and I agreed, was the weakest of the five courses, even though it was still amazingly good. It was a hangar steak from an organically raised Vermont cow, with a medallion of bone marrow, a burgundy-snail sauce on top, and a green garlic sauce on the side. I switched to a different wine for this course -- I got a half glass of Burgundy (I forgot to ask the vintage and vineyard), which I didn't write any tasting notes about, besides "earthy nose", because I just started drinking it, because it was good.
So, I ate a snail. It was pretty good. And the sauce was good. Honestly, the weakest part of the course was the steak itself -- and that was because it was too heavily spiced. It had something of a pastrami flavor. Which I generally quite like, but I felt like it was fighting against the other flavors. I think I would have preferred the steak cooked without the spice rub, and just going with the flavors from the sauces. It was an AMAZINGLY tender piece of beef, and I frankly could have eaten it with no additional preparation, besides being cooked to perfection the way that it was.
Then came dessert. With dessert, I finished off the Riesling, which, by that time, had magically turned into a dessert wine, and Lis ordered a glass of a dessert wine -- she let the waiter choose which one, as he knew what he'd be bringing, and could match a wine to it.
Again, I forgot to get the name of the wine. Which is a pity, because Lis LOVED it. It was sweet, obviously, almost as sweet as a plum wine with a similar mouthfeel and drinking characteristics, but with more of an apple-y, cider-y flavor. Since Lis's two favorite alcohols are plum wine and cider, we were very impressed with the waiter's psychic powers, in finding the PERFECT wine for her.
We got two desserts, and decided to trade them. Lis was served, and I ate, a rhubarb-and-dried fruit dish with a crumble topping, and homemade vanilla ice cream. I thought it was AMAZING -- a pretty simple, basic dessert concept, done just right. A similar effect to, like, a Brown Betty, something in that family of desserts. Done perfectly.
What I got, and Lis ate, was something like a flan in texture, but white. On the side were blood orange slices and fennel sauce, and the flan was beautifully spiced. I really, really liked it, but liked the crumble better, and Lis liked the flan better -- it was sweeter. I only had one bite, so I don't really have a description of it, except, "yum."
We spent an absolutely lovely three hours there, enjoying each other's company, and the food, and the wine. It was an amazing meal, but, if you'll excuse the glurge, the best part of it was being with my wife.
Yes, the waiter got a really good tip, for recommending the Trimbach, and for choosing the perfect wine for Lis for dessert.
ETA: Lis reminded me that this post isn't actually done! After dessert, we got another on-the-house course compliments of the chef. It was a champagne-orange soup with a yogurt sorbet. It was bitter, and sweet, and bubbly, and refreshing, and amazing. It was the best possible capper to the meal.
Also, the chef came out, and we got to thank him for the amazing meal in person.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-15 11:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-15 11:40 pm (UTC)But this is a restaurant I wish I could afford to buy dinners for many of my foodie friends.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-16 01:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-15 11:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-15 11:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-16 12:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-16 12:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-16 01:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-16 03:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-16 03:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-16 04:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-16 08:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-16 01:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-16 02:48 pm (UTC)Now hurry up and get that darned passport!
8)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-20 12:27 pm (UTC)