Friday, February 22, 2002
Exquisite Birthday Lunch
For my 21st – oops, okay make that 37th - birthday, friends invited me to a really top class new restaurant (the chef used to cook for La Tour d’Argent in Paris, which is extremely famous).
Just listen to this menu: quails’ legs with salad and fig chutney for the entrée; followed by roast monkfish with a selection of wild mushrooms (they were also roasted and the outsides were crisp, with the juicy insides retaining an incredibly concentrated flavour). I have to stop here and take a deep breath.
Okay, brace yourselves: dessert was caramelised apple tart with the locally-made barley sugar ice cream. The pastry of the tart was the thinnest I have ever seen, and the whole thing was heavenly.
To top off all that excitement, the three glasses of champagne I had ordered to treat my friends turned out to be on the house - what a nice gesture. It was warm enough for us to have our coffee outside in the garden, where we could watch the swans gliding elegantly past on the Loing (the same swans who hiss at me when I take the children to throw bread to the ducks).
Just listen to this menu: quails’ legs with salad and fig chutney for the entrée; followed by roast monkfish with a selection of wild mushrooms (they were also roasted and the outsides were crisp, with the juicy insides retaining an incredibly concentrated flavour). I have to stop here and take a deep breath.
Okay, brace yourselves: dessert was caramelised apple tart with the locally-made barley sugar ice cream. The pastry of the tart was the thinnest I have ever seen, and the whole thing was heavenly.
To top off all that excitement, the three glasses of champagne I had ordered to treat my friends turned out to be on the house - what a nice gesture. It was warm enough for us to have our coffee outside in the garden, where we could watch the swans gliding elegantly past on the Loing (the same swans who hiss at me when I take the children to throw bread to the ducks).
