Text 33477, 92 rader
Skriven 2015-11-22 11:18:22 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 516
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Swarovski World is a short trip from the city: you don't actually
go to the factory, but to a sort of theme park adjacent to it.

You enter through a piece of landscape sculpture that I and 
probably thousands of others mentally labeled as "the vomiting 
green man."

In the dark vestibule is a bunch of art artfully lit to show off
its shininess. Is that a melted watch I see? Well, hello, Dali.

You are guided through an also artfully designed maze of 
corridors and rooms, each decorated by a different commissioned
artist. I liked some of them, found others interesting, and
repulsed by a couple. The one I liked best looked like fly eyes 
at the end of a bowling alley. Weird urban menhirs was another.

It doesn't take long - I didn't see too much to bury my head in
my hands about. Lilli and I left early to check out a few more
of the sights in town and then freshen up for our gala dinner.
--
Bistro Gourmand de Thierry is a short ten-minute walk from the
Hilton - easy to find except for a couple of chronically tardy
ones who were tardy. We were seated at two tables, which also 
sorted out into German- and English-speaking ones. This is good 
in a way and less good in a way. There's no ideal solution.

A fairly standard tapenade greeted us, with pretty good bread.
The tapenade had too much (sweet) capsicum for me.

Our amuse-bouche of liver mousse met with general approval.

There were three appetizer choices; I got to taste all of them.

A couple mouthfuls of sauteed lamb was an elegant presentation,
and the meat was delicious. However, tuna tartare with yogurt,
though it turned out to taste delicious, had sat there long
enough so liquid had started to ooze onto the plates, not a
beautiful sight. I was the outlier, the only one at our table
to get the seafood entree, pumpkin soup with seared scallops;
I was curious to see what happened between squash and seafood.
Turns out they were separate but next to each other, so I
tried them separately and together. The soup was pretty normal
but not as sweet as I am accustomed to (this difference being
a good thing), the scallops very fresh but not as sweet as I
am accustomed to (not a good thing), but I grew up in a day when 
scallops were scallops. They were done rare, perfectly as far as 
I was concerned. They made a harmonious but not particularly 
exciting combination. Sort of Telemann on a plate.

I had a glass of some kind of perfectly fine Chardonnay with this.

Main courses were a choice of two - truffle-crusted rumpsteak
and sea bass with shrimp, mussels, and eggplant.

I chose Family Secret from Jaboulet as the wine for our part
of the table - light enough to be tolerable with the fish but
Syrah enough to support a truffle-crusted rumpsteak. Fairly spicy, 
a bit sweeter than I'd have hoped. If I'd been able to afford it, 
there was a nice selection of Bordeaux that would have gone better.

I tasted the steak - quite good, but I didn't figure out the 
coating, which was rather sandy breadcrumbs with this black stuff 
mixed in. I'm sort of fond of the black stuff, but the proportion 
was way too small, and much of the aroma was provided by truffle 
oil, which I'm not so fond of. The kitchen didn't seem to 
distinguish between medium and medium-rare.

Again I was the only one to get the seafood, which was quite
good, the fish tender but just a bit more done than I'd have
preferred, the shellfish very cooked which added a different
dimension of shell flavor, kind of interesting. I love eggplant,
and this was quite good though ugly to look at. The very cooked
nature of the dish actually improved the relationship with the
red wine. I was pretty pleased.

Desserts:

Cafe Gourmand, a thing of espresso accompanied by three little 
desserts - a pistachio mousse that had other stuff in it, a 
flourless chocolate cake, and creme brulee that came flaming
in a tiny cup, pretty amusing;

an assortment of cheeses I didn't investigate;

and I had a full-size serving of creme brulee. It was really
good, and I was glad not to have to be limited to the tiny cup
that came with the assortment dessert.

Back for drinks at the hotel, where GrjApp provided more coupons,
so there was enough alcohol for all.
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