The French Laundry

Okay, I'm finally responding to one of my first not-from-friends (although those are completely lovely too) requests! Sorry about the delay, but I had some serious scanner issues to work out. So now that they are (sorta) conquered - above is the copy of the tasting menu from French Laundry!

First of all, the details at the Laundry are astounding. For example - the lighting fixtures have three little laundry-label symbols on them: machine wash, no tumble dry and iron if necessary. Very cool. [Hubby comment: other French Laundry pluses are lots of knowledgeable servers, a great sommelier, and presentations like performance art.] Now for the food!

First up, the panna cotta. The custardy cheesy goodness was very nice, but the caviar was the star. Fresh and succulent it just about melted on the tounge. I had a nice sparkling wine - actually a true champagne. Possibly the best bubbly I ever had. Next up... FOIE! Yes, the lovely product of force-fed duck smeared over nice brioche. And when each plate of brioche had sat on the table for 3 or more minutes, waiters came by with fresh hot bready goodness. I joked that the waitstaff must have a timer, and the server said, "Well, mostly, yeah." Totally deadpan.

Oh well, I have no future as a comedian.

Next I had 'boudin'. The sausage like thing, not the Foreign Legion thing. But mine was made of Walleye Pike. I would not have been able to tell you where, exactly the summer truffles were, but I could definitely taste them in there somewhere. And let me tell you, if all bacon was like that I would eat it every freaking day. To hell with cholesterol I would die happy.

Okay, and the Caesar salad? Didn't look like any freaking Ceasar I ever saw... but that's okay 'cause the lobster was smooth and succulent.

(Side note, John Stewart just said 'testicu-lar-dar' while talking to Lance Armstrong - no joke!)

Next was the only dish I didn't much care for (besides the sweet ones. Those who know me know that I don't much like desert. Now I know that possibly one of the best chefs of the world can't make me truly crave sweet stuff. I must be defective. But we already knew that!) which was this little ball of rabbit meat on a bone. Now I liked the bone - marrow yummy - but the little ball of meat was just a little dry and not quite... there. [Hubby liked the spice combination on Thumper quite a bit, though.]

The ribeye of lamb was great. Yummy yummy. Not a dish that pushed any culinary envelopes, but it was a superb example of classic French lamby goodness. I even like the mint tapenade, which never happened before. [Hubby sez: sure, hindsight is that the $150 extra for two servings of Wagyu (Kobe) beef seems desirable now.]

And that was the end of the realy good stuff for me. There was one more course and then sweet stuff. And I just don't like sweet food. But we had a scary good meal for a scarily huge amount of money.

But for my taste, in ten years when I can afford to to that again, I think I'm going back to Cyrus. Cyrus just pushes the food harder, tries for more and has more fun. But I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't had the chance to eat at both.

And if I could go for $200 a plate including wine I would do it again next year. Just not for $200 a head plus wine. Yikes!