Text 6805, 208 rader
Skriven 2006-10-21 16:29:26 av Ian Hoare (1:275/311)
Ärende: 3 blobs at Laguiole (contd)
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The Meal.

Once we were seated, we only had a 2 minute wait before the waiters came
with our amuse bouches. They were served in couples with the spoons in which
they were served facing in opposite directions. 

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There was one vegetable spoon, one of fish and one of meat and it was
suggested to us that we eat them in that order. To start with therefore, we
had a beetroot puree, served with a twist of carrot and a very delicate
puree  which was hard to place. Might have been peach or apple. That was
followed by the fish, which consisted of poached squid, perfectly fresh and
perfectly cooked, in a sort of egg white froth, accompanied by a little dot
of carrot puree. Finally we had chopped pig's trotter, accompanied by a
ravigote sauce (chopped vegetables & herbs). I found that the beetroot,
perfectly seasoned though it was, was really nothing more than beetroot -
and I find it hard to get excited over beetroot. The others were
magnificent. 

Then followed the Potato soup with truffled whipped cream and olive oil (and
spinach) This was presented very cleverly indeed. In the centre of the large
plate, was a pile of 3-4 leaves of lightly poached spinach leaves on top of
which there was a large serving spoon shaped "quenelle" of whipped cream
liberally speckled with chopped truffles. The waiter then appeared with the
soup tureen, and carefully ladled the soup over that dollop of cream, to
start it melting, 

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(Sorry about the camera shake!!)

Magic. Nothing de trop and nothing missing. Perfectly seasoned, full of
flavour, but not too heavy. When I make a potato soup as thin as that, it's
got no flavour, if it's tasty. it's so thick you can stand a spoon up in it.
I've no IDEA how he managed to get such lightness and yet such flavour. - As
I said "magic".

Suitably dazzled, we sat awaiting the next course, which was the fish. 

Royal Sea Bream with leaves and stems of mustard, mussel stock and flower
heads (one was borage)

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(My hand shook again!!)

Here we had a slight divergence of opinion between my brother and me . We
both agree that the fish was sublime, perfectly cooked, and wonderfully
fresh. Tony didn't think the accompaniments, the fennel, the sort of
gremolota that was sprinkled at one end of the fish, and the flowers, added
anything, I did, though they were VERY subtle. The borage flower tasted of
lovage which was fascinating, and I felt its slight bitterness set off the
fish well. It was obvious that Michel Bras intended to let nothing obscure
the quality of the fish and he certainly succeeded in that.

Next came the beechwood delights.

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Fried cepes with a parsnip puree, and a mixture of raw apples, celery and
butternut squash cut into tiny cubes.

The cepes were just fried enough to be tender and juicy, and their earthy
flavours were beautifully picked up by the silky smooth parsnip puree in the
middle. There was a salpicon of apple, celery and butternut squash scattered
over and a foam was dished beside it. The foam was VERY tasty, though we
simply couldn't identify what it contained. A swirl of butternut squash over
the top completed the dish. Delightful again, seasoned with such a deft hand
that you almost didn't notice it.

By this time we'd finished the white wine which went pretty well with these
three courses (and amuse bouches). The Altenberg de Bergheim by Deiss is
made from a mixture of three grape varieties, all planted together on the
Grand Cru vineyard. When we first tasted it about 5 years ago, Jacquie and I
were agreed that it was about the best "new-to-us" wine we'd had for the
last ten years, as Jacquie says "This wine was never made by lumpish man, it
was made by the angels". I'll not try to describe the taste, except to say
that with Riesling and Gewurztraminer predominating, it showed
characteristics of both these cepages but with far more complexity. It
wasn't totally bone dry, which was in fact an advantage considering the
different dishes it was going to have to accompany. 

So - now came the main course and with it the red wine. 

Red deer roasted over the embers, quince puree with lemon, artichoke
matchsticks, horn of plenty mushrooms and the meat juices

I'm afraid I nearly forgot to snap this, so waited until they served the
Aligot (on the same plate) again my hand shook, I'm afraid, but the photo
shows the way in which Aligot forms strings.

http://cjoint.com/?kuqSFXPetp

The venison was perfectly grilled pink, neither too rare, nor too well
cooked, and was lean and juicy and full of flavour. Perfectly hung. Served
with its juice, a little dollop of lemony quince - very fluffy and pale -
some Jerusalem artichoke cut into matchsticks and a good spoonful of
roomettes des morts (horn of plenty mushrooms), this was a super dish which
was accompanied brilliantly by the wine. This time, Tony & I agreed that one
of the components - in this case the artichokes - didn't really _do_
anything for the dish. The rest was sublime, but we felt the dish wouldn't
have been diminished by the absence of the matchsticks. 

My sister-in-law, who doesn't enjoy great multi-course meals like we do, had
ordered "just" two courses and her first one was served here. (As if she'd
not nibbled on our earlier ones). She had some hogget chops, served with
mustard greens. Again, the quality of the meat was irreproachable and Bras
did nothing to obscure it. Brilliant.

About half way through, as I said, a waiter brought the aligot and served it
onto the plates with the meat. Aligot is a tradition of the area, and is
made by stirring mashed potatoes with "Tomme de Cantal" which is the rather
rubbery base from which Cantal cheese will be made by long maturing. The
resultant mass is seasoned, cream added, and worked and it should form
loooooonnngggg strings.  Have a look at Jacquie in complete giggles over
hers.

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Cheeses from Aveyron and the surroundings

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What can I say? A magnificent selection. On the left were the cows' milk
cheeses, in the front goat, and on the right sheep. At the back in the
middle were the really local cheeses including two Laguiole cheeses, one 9
months old and the other 15. I blew my head off with the 15 month old
Laguiole, which was too strong for the others at the table, but was about
has powerful as the old fashioned "Extra powerful mature Cheddar" used to
be. Almost crumbly, with a great thick crust, it went (as I thought it
would) beautifully with the wine. 

Our cheeses and wine finished, it was time for the dessert, 

Butternut squash "leather" with crispy almond sponge, a coffee Italian ice
cream and a vanilla sauce

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For Tony this was the only course that wasn't a great success. The "confit"
of butternut squash consisted of a puree of butternut squash that was
reduced and dried till it was almost solid. It must be admitted that it
didn't have a great deal of flavour and the almond crisp had a lot more. The
"Italian cappuccino" ice was a delight, perfect in flavour and texture. I
thought it was more interesting than wonderful. 

My SIL had her "other" course here. She had ordered a variety of ice creams
cornets. A tour de force of presentation.

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The choice of flavours was "interesting", with hazelnut, red pepper,
"balsamite" (!!) and pepper being four of them, I'm afraid I can't remember
the other two. I felt this was a triumph of form over content. None of these
were truly exciting, and although they were clever, they weren't actually
very good to eat. To be brutal, most of the deserts looked as if they were
in the same boat. We felt this course was not his strongest point, though
that probably goes to show how unsophisticated we are!!! We rather like our
puds to be sweet.

At the same time as our desserts arrived, two glass "cubes" arrived filled
with all sort of stone balls, on top of which in one there were some
delightful sorbets and in the other some little sticklets were planted.
Whimsical, but delicious.

I must say a word about the service. It's the only place where I've seen
this done. When a table is being served, one, or two, waiters appear from
the kitchen carrying a large tray, and they stand with the tray held out in
front of them, motionless, in a convenient space between the two rows of
tables.

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The table waiters - and anyone else who's around such as sommelier, or the
head waiter - take the plates off the tray, and dish them at each table.
VERY slick and very smooth. Such a system wouldn't work where individual
waiters keep their own table tips - as everyone waits on whatever table
they're needed. As in many top french restaurants waiters here give good
service out of a sense of pride and self respect, rather than in the hopes
of a more generous tip.

After we'd finished the meal "proper", it was time for coffees. So we
repaired to the lounge again, where they brought us our coffees, AND as if
we'd not eaten enough, a whole raft of goodies arrived to go with the
coffees. 

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The pots contained cream on a layer of flavoured syrups - quite delicious, I
had two. On the slate were the "canards". The sugar cubes had been
caramelised slightly so that when dipped in alcohol, they wouldn't
immediately dissolve. Quite delicious, I had one only because everyone else
ate theirs. And finally there were little chocolate coated puffed wheat
biscuits. Sigh... they were delicious too, but I only had room for one. 

Finally - the bill. We divided the bill (for the four of us) between Tony
and myself, with Tony doing the food and me doing the rest, wine, apéros and
coffee. The food bill will have been around the €360 (call it $400) mark,
but I don't know exactly as Tony added some other goodies to it. My bill
came to €296, which wasn't negligible, but not unreasonable at just under
$350, considering the quality of the drinks we had.

So there we have it. We ate a simple supper that night!

Bon appetit
Ian in Forges
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