Bouchon.
Sunday morning in Napa Valley - day 2 of our weekend stint - found us
standing line nice and early(ish) at the Bouchon Bakery. Another Thomas
Keller restaurant, Bouchon's reputation also precedes itself, but I
figured that since this weekend was TFL weekend, adding Bouchon to the
list was probably a bit excessive (on the wallet). The wait in line was
considerable but pleasant, similar to my trip to Tartine Bakery a few
weeks ago: the people are friendly and excited, and the eye and nose
candy is just unbelievable. @_@ I picked out treats for Alan and myself
and settled down w/ the Chan Clan at a table in the small courtyard
adjacent.
The sticky bun, topped with sweet pecans, was
heavenly and reminded me a lot of the morning buns at Tartine. The
eclair was decent, the signature Bouchon sweets were memorably rich and
chocolatey, and the pan chocolat (chocolate croissant) was unanimously
the least impressive (but still not bad). I also pilfered bites of a
to-die-for bacon and cheese scone off of the Chans. After stuffing our
faces, we sat around for a while, frantically digesting, and
absentmindedly commenting on how the birds that were scavenging crumbs
off of us were rather fat, and were probably the most well fed birds in
the world.
Then,
after exercising off our subsequent sugar rush with a lengthy shopping
trip at the Napa outlet mall, The Big Evening highlight arrived. Jen,
Vivien, James and myself dressed up nicely and headed to...
The French Laundry.
First thing we noticed about the place was that service was near
perfect. The waiters and waitresses all spoke with the same soothing,
pleasantly modulated, low voice that impeccably described every single
dish placed before us. They noticed every piece of tableware/silverware
accidentally knocked out of place or dirtied, every half-empty wine
glass or water glass, every dropped napkin, every crumb on the table
that needed dusting off. They were so attentive - unlike any other food
service I've ever known - it was almost a dance routine.
We
were seated in the upstairs area, and the girls promptly set up our
three cameras (two mounted on gorillapods of various sizing). Jen had
done her homework, and knew that we wanted (1) a kitchen tour after our
meal, and (2) a special request of "coffee and donuts," one of their
famous desserts. Not only did they fill both requests without
hesitation, they added another dish into our presentation, knocking up
our Chef's 9-course tasting menu to a whopping 11 courses, spanning
over 4 hours of eating time. @_@
My battery threatened to run
out about halfway through the meal, so my food pr0n macro shots get
exponentially worse as the meal progresses. There were "only" 9
courses, but several of the courses involved a choice between two
pre-fixe options, and for each one we split 2 and 2...so, when added to
all the unlisted things we ate as well, we must have each sampled
something like 16-18 different dish presentations. I still haven't tried to count them, maybe some gentle reader can inform me of just how much I ate. @_@. I frequently
knock fancy-schmancy restaurants that charge you a boatload of money
and then give you a tiny little artistic layout of food, but quantity
was nothing to complain about this time - after TFL I was about to fall
into eternal food coma.
So! without further ado, a brief (at least I'm trying to be brief, this is not going to be a brief entry, come on I have like 18 dishes to cover) summary of TFL!!!
Wine. We
paired our meal with a nice, (relatively) inexpensive bottle of Zmos -
yes, a $70 bottle of wine was the one of the most affordable on the
menu - white wine. It was fruity, bubbly, and light, exactly how I
like my white wine. If the patron chooses, TFL offers an option to pair
a glass of wine with each of the 9 courses - but at $20-40 a glass x9,
we opted not to.
Cheese puff and salmon cone. (unofficial title)They
were not on the menu, so of course I am clueless as to their official
dish titles. The round creampuff-like appetizers were filled with
fragrant cheese and crispy and warm on the outside. The second
appetizer was a salmon cone, topped with chives. Inside the cone I
believe was some creme fraiche.
Oysters and Pearls.
The signature opening to the meal after two
appetite-whetter mini-dishes. The presentation of the meal, which is as
important as the food itself, was finely tuned and coordinated.
For Oysters and Pearls, two waiters bring the four little dishes - the
interior of which is no larger than a personal sized ramekin - and set
them down across from each other, simultaneously. This proved to be
exceedingly difficult with three obsessive women, three cameras and two
gorillapods mucking about the table. As the camera noob, there would
be many hisses of "Wei-Ling! Wei-Ling!" as I messed up their routine
while trying to get a good manual macro shot in low lighting.
Egg Custard with white truffle oil (unofficial title)Yet
another dish off the menu! This is an egg custard, prepared right in
its own shell, with white truffle oil and topped with a chive chip. We
were licking the insides for every last bit of the tasty custard, it
was so delicious. I think it was the truffle oil that made it so good.
The Bread Interludes
Most other restaurants treat bread as cheap filler, but The French
Laundry honed it into a seamless transition between meals. The first
"interlude" was a simple dinner roll, presented with two types of
butter, one unsalted and one lightly salted with fleur de sel. We
completely obliterated the generous container of salted butter - it
was, without exaggeration, I have ever tasted in my life. I could not
help myself and heartily slathered all the bread I ate with the stuff.
They served like 6-8 other types of bread two more times during the
meal - currant bread, mini baguettes, multigrain, on and on - and each
time, we all reached for the butter with fleur de sel. ^_^;;;
Salad of Sunchokes and Broccolini.A
light, palette cleansing salad to prepare us for the meat dishes that
are coming up. Lots of delightfully different flavors in amounts just
enough to fill your mouth and not overpower: Cara Cara Oranges, Pine
Nuts and Niçoise Olive Oil. Not my favorite dish, but it was a great
way to get into the richer dishes that followed.
Foie Gras.
I've
honestly never liked Foie Gras because of (1) the strong taste and
smell, and (2) the origin of the food. But at this point I realized
that the talented kitchen staff at TFL could probably turn even my most
hated foods into savory dishes, so I gave it a try. I ended up eating a
darn good chunk of it (while crying tears of sadness for the animal it
came from).
As much as I don't believe in cruel treatment of animals for food, I
can't lie, it was a delicious terrine of foie gras; but, the
100-year-old balsamic vinegar absolutely stole the show. The foie gras
was served with a silver tray with three types of salt - each type
rarer, harder to obtain, and more exotic than the last. Unfortunately,
since foie gras is inherently salty, there was much not use for it - we
ended up just sampling the salt with the subsequent dishes and even
just subsequent bread/butter :)
Bluefin TunaIt's
hard to make me a tuna fan. I ate too much tuna as a kid, enough to
jumpstart that part of your body that makes you start fearing certain
tastes when one becomes older.
But the bluefin tuna serving was
perfectly tender, not sushi nor overdone, and the accompanying almonds
and mini cauliflower flourettes were perfect little jewels of explosive
taste that complimented the mild tuna's flavor.
Sweet Poached Lobster
One of my favorite main courses. The mitts are authentic
fresh Maine Lobster. The "melted" garlic's recipe is a completely
mystery, but it was the most delicious garlic-in-paste-form I've had
since my college days at Berkeley - a modestly popular italian place
called Gypsy (located in the south side "grease court"), which baked
garlic bulbs until they were easily crushed into a deliciously stinky
spread on lightly toasted bread, served with every one of their pasta
dishes.
Every dish that we sampled has a combination of strong
and mild that go perfectly with each other. The baby artichokes and
sweet carrots were wonderfully complementary matched with the seafood.
Santa Barbara Sea Urchin "Tongues"I was very wary about this dish, but it was actually quite good.
I'd never tried uni (sea urchin) before, but I'd heard nightmares of
badly prepared uni that tasted horrible. TFL's take on uni was to serve
it in "tongues" over a bed of buckwheat noodles, vegetables, and a -
you guessed it - black truffle vinaigrette. Truffle power!!
Veal Sweetbreads.I
was wary of this dish as well - I know what sweet bread is, and I'd
never felt any particular urge to try it before. Of course, the
combination of sweet bread and Caraway Späetzle, Sweet Peppers, Savoy
Cabbage, Crème Frâiche and "Souce Goulash" made this a tasty dish
worthy of the TFL lineup, but at the same time, it wasn't
...sock-knockoff fantastic. Just not my thing, I suppose. Although, the
"melted" savoy cabbage was to die for.
Poularde.
I assume poularde is the fancy schmancy french world for Chicken. :)
Mmmm Wilted Arrowleaf Spinach, potato confit, Hobbs Shore Bacon and
Sherry Vinaigrette! My other favorite main course. The chicken was just
so perfect...not dry, not undercooked, not tough. I was sorry to have
to share this one, hehehe.
Lamb Ribeye.
Mmmmm!
The lame was as soft and tasty as kobe beef. (now that's an awesome
thought - kobe beef done French Laundry style. Salivary glands are
activating at the thought of it) The lamb slices melted in my mouth,
the sauce was delightful, and I even liked/ate the mushrooms - I HATE
mushrooms. In fact, I normally don't eat about half the things I
enjoyed this evening.
Cheese Plate.After
the amazing meat dishes, it was time for a cheese platter. It was hard
to follow up, since the meat dishes were the best I've ever had in my
life, and unfortunately I've sampled a LOT of good cheeses. I enjoyed
the matching of the apricot and fennel bulb with it, though.
Pear Sorbet.
The
pear sorbet was completely exploding with flavor. Overpowering in any
other setting, but the panna cotta and the ginger snap helped keep it
in check by grounding your tongue with milder, breadier flavor. It's
really amazing how TFL knows exactly that each dish is a sensory
experience - each dish knows exactly how to teases your senses to the
brink of overpowering, and then pulls it back to safety with a
perfectly matched complement.
Coffee and Doughnuts.Waaah,
I'd been looking forward to this for the entire meal! This was an
off-the-menu appetizer (or dessert?) that was equally as famous as
Oysters and Pearls. The doughnut was incredible, again with the
"melting in your mouth" sensation. The taste was familiar, though - I
kept thinking that I must have had some chinese pastry that was derived
from the same ingredients - but never of this level of softness and
flavor. The semi-freddo was sweet (but not overly so), and consisted of
layers of cream and chocolate so that it kept changing as you ate it
away. The fact that it was not overpowering made it a perfect
complement to the doughnut, which was lavishly sugary.
Chocolate "Dobos."
The
best brownie ever. I completely inhaled the little decorative crisp and
candied chestnuts. The brown bread ice cream was not impressive at
first, but as the complement to its sweeter half, it was perfect.
Pavé de chocolate blanc au thé vert.Or
in other words: cake. It was good (can you tell I'm running out of
adjectives?) By far the most explosive and tasty was the passionfruit
gelee though. I am madly in love with passionfruit (or anything
passionfruit flavored), and this gelee was phenomenal. Everything else
on the dish was muted (not bland, but easy on the tongue), and that
little chunk of orange was why.
Tea Interlude
I
picked a white tea that was described as "picked from the a mountaintop
by monks." I just thought that was crazy and worth mentioning. :)
Mignardises I and IIThese
candies were like little afterthoughts to end your meal on a sweet
note. Unfortunately, by this course we were all so stuffed we had to
have them packed away to go! I did manage one chocolate covered
macadamia though, and found it extremely pleasant and different - less
chocolate, more macadamia than usual. The flavor of the macadamia,
therefore, was less overpowered by chocolate, and made it a much
lighter dessert.
Afterwards
We
managed to totter downstairs and take a quick peek-tour into the
kitchen. The kitchen is modestly sized, and everyone working in it is
surprisingly young - the head chef of the night, Corey Lee, was
supposedly 30 or so. He was standing around, not looking particularly
busy, and probably a bit flustered at three asian women (and one white
dude) staring at him with hearts in their eyes.
We managed to
find our way home via the darkened streets of Yountville. Jen had to
drive this time because James and Vivien had ordered a second bottle of
red wine for the latter half of their meal. I remember looking up in
the crisp night air (it was 10:30 at this point, 4.5 hours after we had
begun our meal) and seeing a huge black sky full of bright
constellations.
Back at Vino Bello, I crashed and fell
unconscious for about one hour before I could get back up and rejoin
the world of the living. The French Laundry was definitely the most
amazing dining experience I have ever had. When I can, I will
definitely be back, though it will have to be an ocassion worthy of the
bill. ;)
*END* (aka *crash* from food coma)
For the complete collection of food pr0n, more food detail commentary, people shots, restaurant shots, and the rest of this trip's photos, please visit my Flickr Set for this trip!
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