I just had to share my birthday dinner with you all. Les took me out to L'Idée Saveur. We had enjoyed lunch there a few weeks ago and decided (well, I did) that I wanted to go there for dinner. Earlier in the afternoon I had enjoyed my book club discussion of Alice Munro's "Lives of Girls and Women"....yea Canada! and then about 6:30 we left the apartment on the Tram to take in the Lumière celebration in the Beaux Arts area. It was cold, it was a bit windy and the celebration was in the small square. Not really much. Some music, a guy on a tight rope between two trees and lots of people hugging glasses of hot wine, coffee, soup........anyting to keep warm. We bumped into two of the students in my class and received birthday kisses. And then we headed to the restaurant, so we were quite hungry by the time we arrived at 8.
Immediately we ordered glasses of champagne, and a small glass of mascerated olives and figs with crostini was set down in front of us. We ordered, enjoyed this amusée bouche and anticipated a marvelous meal. The restaurant holds only 20 people and the hostess/server gives everyone, including us, a greeting as if we are family. Very nice. So we had both ordered the Capaccio de noix Saint Jacques, so we knew we were both getting scallops. As the hostess came with the two smallish soup cups on saucers, she murmured something about "how had we enjoyed the amusée bouche". I said we had enjoyed it. But here in front of us was something warm and delightful and foamy and not at all what we expected. But we enjoyed it and it was so yummy that I forgot to take a picture.
Well, so much for me nailing the verb endings. Sometimes to my ear the passé composé sounds like the futur simple, and in fact, the foamy concoction was the amusée bouche.
The Capaccio, what we had ordered, arrived and was marvelous!!
There are at least two very large scallops, perhaps three, thinly sliced, in a lemon/lime mixture, with tiny bits of mango, daikon, tomato and celery. Baby spinach on top and graced with lemongrass. The bread on the left is a sesame seed bread tasting much like a cross between a quickbread and a yeast bread. Excellent! I may be trying this one at home.
Next up, with a small bottle of voignier was the cod and haddock for me and the mixed grill for Les.
The cod was sitting on a sea of cream with mashed haddock (I think) and small mussels all round. A trio of seafood. So good that I had to eat slowly to savour all the flavours.
Hardly a mixed grill I know, and that was certainly not the name on the menu. But there is grilled lamb, grilled beef and inside the phyllo pastry is shredded pork. Surrounded by eggplant, zucchini, polenta and carrot. Les appeared, at one point, to be moaning with pleasure.
I couldn't fit in dessert, which would be a surprise to everyone who knows me as I usually pace myself towards the sweet. Anyway, Les ordered the cheese plate:
Hi favourite was the middle one, the Sainte-Maure de Touraine, a chèvre cheese from the Loire. I'm sure we'll have to be looking for this one next week in our favourite cheese shops. Yes, we have faves.
And this morning I woke up to a birthday treat, with advice to look back on my last 66 years and ahead to the next 33, with help from Buddha and some chocolate books and shoes.........and I'm sure I can find some bubbly ;-)
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