Text 10746, 93 rader
Skriven 2007-01-19 21:53:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: father's 89th bday 918
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For my father's birthday we went to Normandie Farm, which
he used to like (and would occasionally take me to in the
'50s and '60s); despite being a large and drafty room,
there's a certain comforting aspect to it, because it looks
the way a French restaurant ought to look.

We got there a bit early, and, as I wanted to steel myself
for another family gathering, I had a hit of Macallan 12,
with its lovely sherry-cask flavor; Carol had a Gibson.

Presently John and Vicki showed up - interesting; my father
had asked for John (my late sister's husband), and I invited
him and his new spouse, sort of expecting them - or her - to
decline. I was surprised, kind of pleasantly, that they both
came out: beyond the call of duty, say I. Vicki wanted a
glass of wine, so we ordered a bottle of the quite pleasant,
substantially but not obtrusively oaked, rather fruity Mark
West Chardonnay 04.

I'd made reservations for 5:30 and told my brother to show
up at 5:15 so there'd be a fighting chance of his being close
to on time: yeah right. Six o'clock.

The website is popovers.com, so can you guess what comes
instead of rolls and butter? Actually, you get the butter
(and jam), and rolls are available on request. The popovers
are eggy and buttery, and mine of all the ones at the table
was overdone and crisp crunchy brown.

My father is getting frail, and he claims to have lost his
appetite. So he had two appetizers - the richest ones on the
menu, pretty much - oysters Rockefeller and lobster bisque.
Both were respectable if not exciting (a hair underflavored,
truth be told - this is kind of an old lady restaurant).
He ate them both down without apparent pain or stress.

My brother had his usual onion soup gratinee (he said it was
one of the best) followed by rack of lamb (he said it was
even better).

John and Vicki split a salad and then had beef Wellington,
done medium-rare as ordered, and duck with raspberry sauce.
There was too much for Vicki's bird-like appetite, so she
gave me a substantial tribute of much of the skin and a
good chunk of rather overdone breast meat. The sauce met
with her approval but not mine.

Carol ordered the bisque and the Wellington, so I got to
taste both. The bisque was okay, not substantially lobstery
though; and the beef tasted like cheap liver pate and
shiitake and button mushrooms - quite unlike the foie gras
and truffles that one hopes for. The puff pastry was
substituted with what appeared to be a giant popover.

I got the blackened scallops appetizer, which was six
medium-size coins of scallop meat (not exciting - it is
really hard to get really good scallops) made by bisecting
three fat ones horizontally. I'd asked them to be cooked
rare, but it is impossible to do thinnish pieces such as
these rare, so I got medium-well meat and rare spices,
which were mostly salt and paprika anyway. These came
with a clump of spinach that was better than the scallops.

A good old all-American sirloin steak, rare was as requested.
Sadly, it had been trimmed of almost every bit of fat; luckily
it had not been trimmed of every bit of gristle, of which there
was a fair amount. Accompaniments were a decent baked potato
with gummy sour cream and a strange broiled tomato also
done rare, so that the tasteless rubber-ball fruit was still
raw and resilient with the nice topping of garlic crumbs
just sort of halfheartedly brown.

Stag's Leap Cabernet 01 was on the list, so I ordered it with
the admonition that it had to be that age or older. The waiter
came back with the news that what was in the cellar was the 03,
which I'd consider infanticide. So on consultation with the
manager he brought out the Stuhlmuller Cabernet 00, which was
nicely cedary, with touches of currant and berries, a pretty
rich wine with a nice fat palate and a good long finish. Not
the deepest darkest flavors in the world, but about the quality
and in the style of a lower-level classed growth Bordeaux. When
the fearsome paper came, it turned out they had charged $25
less than the Stag's Leap price.

My father got a free slice of flourless chocolate cake, which
was fine and which he shared around the table.

Verdict: go for simple and spend your money on wine and you
might do well. I would happily get a steak and some wine any time.

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