Text 33801, 74 rader
Skriven 2015-11-29 06:09:18 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Les 7 - last meal 580
=============================
A dinner at one of Ian's favorite places, Les 7 in Tulle, a
tiny place, 20-odd seats, and one wonders how they make a
go of it, as the ingredients are fresh, the execution expert,
and the prices quite reasonable. It's run by a young couple
for whom Ian predicts good things.

We started off with a Terre de Causse Baies Dorees, one of
the more respected Correzien wines, the red version of which
had impressed I&J when they'd had it before. This was a
fairly tasteless white that served pretty well its aperitif
purposes but didn't really do much in general, just sort of
flabbing around the mouth. Just as well, we had four very
disparate appetizers.

Jacquie had butternut soup with cream, chestnuts, and oats,
pretty good, a little sweet, the oats, which screamed "Hey,
Mr. Michelin Man!" transforming the bowl into breakfast
food thus rather obtrusive.

A crunchy soft-boiled egg amused and impressed Swisher. This
came with seasonal root vegetables and a mushroom foam that,
as with most foams, didn't add much.

Ian found his saffron risotto with shrimp a little too al
dente (better than too mushy, and the taste I had I thought
just fine) but with just the right amount of saffron. The
shrimp he thought superb, crisp-tender even though not brined
and flavorful.

My foie gras with sweet red wine gelee, poached fig and
crumbled gingerbread was a bit of a muchness, the excellent
foie gras somewhat messed about with by all that sweetness.
The gelee was not quite so suavely executed as at the Saint
Jacques, and the gingerbread was a sandy annoyance. Just
liver and fig, such as you might have gotten in the olden
days, and maybe a little smear of Port and demi reduction,
would have been perfect.

For his main course, Swisher, still on a veal kick, had a 
pan-seared filet with polenta, sided with hazelnuts, celery, 
and Indian spices. The veal, nice as it was, was compromised 
by being cut into severe rectangles to mirror the polenta. I 
didn't mind this, but Swisher, who complains about virtually 
nothing, did, and I&J agreed with him.

Ian had hake cooked on the skin, pommes purees and horseradish
cream. Delicious.

Jacquie and I had quail with autumn fruits and butternut squash, 
boulangere potatoes facon du chef, which meant topped with
scallions and lardons, a sure-fire way to make potatoes good.
The quail was a little underdone but tasty, and the garnish
went well. Bad with the wine, though.

Chinon Bernard Baudry Le Clos Guillet 08 was way too acidy and
disappointingly thin. We picked it as likely to go with these
diverse plats, but in fact it went only with the veal. I figure
in retrospect that a robust white would have gone better, but 
our prejudice in favor of reds informed our choice. The Chinon
arguably went worst with the quail because of the sweetness of
its treatment.

Desserts included a nougat thing that was universally admired
and a so-called declension of apple and quince, which I admit
brought out the virtues of both fruits. I had a mousselike
chocolate dome with a surprise inside - a quarter of a poached
pear; pretty good, but I was let down by this surprise, which
seemed to be a harking back to the days of Good Housekeeping.

We decided that there was nothing on the sticky list that
could hold a candle to what we'd been drinking, so we 
contented ourselves with coffee, or, in my case, nothing.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Check Out Doc's QWK Mail  Via Web BBS > DocsPlace.org  (1:123/140)