Text 34433, 66 rader
Skriven 2015-12-21 16:03:06 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Galatoire's 700
=======================
Our high-end dinner for this trip was at Galatoire's, where I 
used to dine irregularly (but often enough to have developed
a relation with a particular waiter, a Hungarian guy, the
process having been advanced considerably by an early visit
having been with Ian and Jacquie, sp I got to take advantage
of this Hungarian male bonding thing without actually having
had the misfortune of being East European.

I'd asked for a table upstairs, where Imre works (57 years
he's been working there), but it turned out that there had 
been a debutante party reserved with over a hundred guests,
so that was out of the question, plus he was off this day
anyhow.

Our waiter was Kenny, who had had maybe half this amount of 
service but still looked as though he'd been on his feet for
a continuous half century. I found him a bit disagreeable, 
but he provided grumpy but adequate service.

Lilli had the seared pork chop, about 12 oz of excellent, somewhat
fatty meat, done medium and served au jus. With this she got au 
gratin potatoes, a cheesy mess that she ate a fair amount of, so
I figure it was pretty good. I got my tribute of the bone with
some fat stuck to it, and what I tasted was a bit charred but
still good tasting.

I ordered the Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir 14 for her - spicy and with
big dried plum, pepper, and spice flavors. A pretty fine wine and
a bargain at $11 the glass. 

I went for the Reveillon menu, which offered four tastes at a not 
really advantageous price - essentially, it offers the equivalent
of free dessert plus the opportunity to sample dishes that one
would have ignored on the menu but that have the advantage of
holding well under the lamps.

My first course was fried oysters over spinach Rockefeller and a
hollandaise sauce, quite good, the main characters being right in
character but slightly strangified by the sauce, which seemed to
be a bit out of place, merely adding an unnecessary sour touch.

The lobster bisque that followed was pretty good, with a strong
lobster shell flavor but little actual lobster; it was also
lukewarm.

Pan-fried drum over eggplant with saffron and rouille was
delicious, a half-pound fillet in an unobtrusive coating, the
outside crisp, the flesh creamy tender. The eggplant, one thin
thin slice, had been perfectly fried. Again, the sauces didn't
make much sense to me, this time adding a little sourness and
a little paprika kick only.

Muscadet de Sevre et Maine Sur Lie “Grand Fief de L’Audigere,ö 
Domaine  Jean Aubron (France) 2013 was a very nice though 
slightly plasticky dry white with some spiciness and went 
well with the fish.

For afters, a mocha panna cotta covered in way too sweet whipped
cream, which destroyed the wine I'd chosen for it, Ch. Les Justices 
11, a semi-rich semi-sweet semi-botrytized wine that went pretty
well by itself, but whose pineapple-apricot notes were totally
submerged by the sugar in the dessert. I solved this by eating 
the whipped cream first (several pills), then the wine with the 
slightly tart and fairly attractive pudding.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Check Out Doc's QWK Mail  Via Web BBS > DocsPlace.org  (1:123/140)