As I mentioned in a previous post, I was super excited for dinner with Nick at Victoria & Albert's.
Here's the review of the dinner, course by course (this may be a little boring to most of you but I wanted to document this):
We were given personalized menus. Very fancy. Mine even said "Happy Birthday" on it. :)
The amuse-bouche was right up my alley. It was an assortment of lobster bite size dishes. Yum! The only thing I had to get over was how they served the lobster bisque. If you know me, you know that I do not eat out of cups and I do not drink out of bowls....every food has its proper vessel and I think it's gross when people drink soup or milk from the bowl. The thought makes me gag. So, it turns out that a "fancy" way of serving lobster bisque is out of a glass cup with a handle meant for you to drink....since no spoon was given to us. I did a bit of my relaxation exercise before eating to get my mind off the thought and I took the sip. It was great but I still wish it came in a bowl. Since Nick does not like lobster, they gave him a vegetarian version that included a butternut squash ravioli, a deviled quail egg (that neither of us ate), and his "soup" was a vegetable consomme.
Appetizer.
Me: It was memorable and the one dish that I would have preferred a giant bowl of. It was the tuna and octopus a la plancha with jamon iberico.....the tuna was amazing and the octopus was the softest, most tender octopus I've ever had in my life. I hated that it was only two bites! :(
Nick: Applewood Smoked Buffalo "Waldorf"....something new since he had never had buffalo meat before and he really enjoyed it.
1st course:
Me: Diver Scallop with Braised Fennel and Blood Orange Gastrique....definitely a "Top Chef" dish in presentation.
Nick: Ratatouille (the vegetarian option since this was the seafood course). I always thought ratatouille was a soup but this was presented in 3 little "rolls" of pasta. It's hard to explain but Nick said it was really good and he wanted to try to make it at home.
2nd course:
Me: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Tortellini....I have always been curious about this type of soup but I have never tried it because I didn't know how I would react to a soup with no "substance", meaning it's just a puree. I was pleasantly surprised. Such a comfort food.
Nick: Roasted Quail with Asian Pears and Serrano Ham Jus. Brave Nick tried quail, again something else for the first time. He really enjoyed this dish. I think he would remember the pears and the ham most over the quail.
3rd course:
Both: Poulet (chicken) Rouge with Hedgehog mushrooms and Truffle Gnocchi
This was the main entree and so it had a bigger portion. It was a good dish. By this course, I was getting full so I can't say that I enjoyed it as much as the others. It definitely solidified that chicken is not my favorite meat at all. I think Nick agreed that for "fancy" dishes, we prefer another type of meat. We were both too "cheap" to order the Kobe beef which was an extra $35 and we didn't know how much we'd care for the pork tenderloin and belly since neither of us are pork people. Chicken seemed like the safest dish. Nick and I were both surprised that they left the skin on the chicken although you could barely tell. Nick and I both have issues with skin on chicken so we peeled that off. We figured the chefs like it because that's where the fat and flavor can be but that's also where I find the most "chicken" smell and it's a bit of a turn off but that's just a personal thing. However, the mushrooms more than made up for the chicken. So much flavor in that dish. I was so proud of Nick for eating his mushrooms and the crisp asparagus that was on the dish as well.
4th course:
Me: Cheese plate...the presentation was very fancy. My favorite was the simplest cheese, tasted closest to cheddar but was served with honey and I am currently on a honey kick so I loved it. Of course, it's only ONE bite so I didn't get to enjoy it for very long.
Nick: White Chocolate Gelatto with Tableside shavings and micro orchids. Gelatto was delicious. Nick will say about this dish, "I ate flowers" because he did eat the little orchids on top of the gelatto. If I did it over again, I would choose this dish over the cheese plate but I wanted to try as many different things as I could.
Dessert.
Me: Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee. I LOVE creme brulee and this was an exceptional one. SOOOO creamy and it was served with raspberries and blackberries on top (not with syrup, just the real fruit) and I loved the combination of the real fruit and the custard. I was stuffed but I made room for it all! :)
Nick: Tanzanie Chocolate Pyramid with a Champagne-Chambord Truffle. This chocolate pyramid had GOLD shavings on top of it. This is what sold us on it. See, Gavin loves the Little Einsteins show and his absolute favorite show is the "Golden Pyramid" episode. He loves it so much that he requests it by name so when we heard that this pyramid had gold on top, we had to get it!
Neither of us are coffee drinkers but they had the coolest coffee maker there and when we saw other tables getting it, we had to give it a shot. It's like an old fashioned coffee pot or percolator. I've read people refer to it as a coffee hookah. I found a picture online (below). Basically, the coffee grounds are placed on top. The coffee pot with the water on the bottom and then a lighted flame under the pot. As the water condenses it moves from the bottom pot to the glass with the grounds, until all the water is at the top and then the coffee brews and comes down to the bottom. I still have no idea how the grounds stay on top and not come down. Whether you drink coffee or not, you should order this just for the "show" of watching it being made. We did order decaf and Nick drank almost the whole pot...only because he put too much sugar on his cup so he had to keep adding coffee to make it less sweet! :)
Overall, I got just what I wanted for my birthday, great food and great company. With all the small portions I didn't think I would be full by the end but Nick and I were both stuffed. The service was fantastic. It was fun not knowing exactly what you were getting. What I mean is that even though you knew what protein you were getting and some of the veggies, they don't list every garnish or sauce on the menu. Plus, the presentation of the food alone was interesting. Nick asked a lot of questions about his food but I was pretty sure there wouldn't be any "bad" textures he'd have to deal with and there were not any. He was pleasantly surprised that he was actually able to eat every course. In his mind, he wasn't going to be able to but I'm very proud of him for stepping out of his comfort zone and trying new things.
No comments:
Post a Comment