The Menu des Chenes came with the room. There is a fancier,
and if we'd had more time I might have asked for an upgrade,
but it was kind of late, and the kitchen probably had one of
everything left, the leftovers going to the staff dinner.

A white Sancerre to start, not too Sauvignony green, barely
off-dry, refreshing, good with all the mises en bouche.

They gave us a couple freebies - escargot tartlet, which was
pretty as expected, mince of garlic, parsley, and snail that
could have been almost anything, in a crisp pastry shell; of
course I got two of these. Not so the cool little ball of foie
gras with apple glaze, which was the best foie gras we had on
the trip and perhaps the best anything.

Then a smoked scallop with foie gras sauce and anise foam flakes
- a peculiarity: the scallop was a little overcooked, but the
sauce was nice, obviously made from the trimmings from the first
amuse. I got both scallops buut let Lilli have most of the sauce.
The garnish was pretty weird - some creamlike thing flavored with
anise and put in a dehydrator, so it became like little snowflakes.
I read an article about the chef, who said, a star? why not? And
it appears he's working toward that. As it is, he has the plate
and three crossed forks and spoons (Le Saint-Jacques, as well as
Les Flots Bleus and Le Garenne, these last the other gastronomic
destinations we visited on this trip, only get two).

For our formal appetizer both of us had the ravioli of Anjou rabbit
confit, with onion confit, pistachios, and smoked consomme - the
ravioli were malfatti and sort of weird floppy, as if pretending
to be a xiao long bao, with the rabbit tasting like chicken, and a
tiny bit of liquid in there. The onion confit and smoked consomme
(read ham broth) brought the dish together nicely.

As a main course, Lilli had cylinders of sous-vide veal knuckle
with a confit of carrots and roast tomato juice. The veal was decent,
with gristly bits ground up inside (she didn't seem to notice).
The dish had clearly been fashioned into long rolls, deep fried, and
then cut into four or five portions per plate, sort of the way an
egg roll is often presented in the fancier sort of bad Chinese
restaurants. The outside was crunchy like an egg roll skin as well,
the inside kind of hashlike. A little pitcher of that tomato juice,
cooked dark brown and enriched with demiglace, saved the dish.

Cod loin poached in sheep's milk, with cauliflower and sea urchin
puree, was the other plat on the menu; it came with watercress juice
beaten with whipped cream and the odd smoked cod egg here and there.
The fish was wonderfully fresh and perfectly cooked, just beginning
to flake and on the border of translucent inside, the milk, which I
had rather dreaded, hardly in evidence. The cauliflower-sea urchin
stuff was really excellent; though the shellfish was a tad iodiney,
the creamy vegetable diluted this aspect until it was a feature
rather than a bug.

Both mains were sided with Brussels sprouts and cauliflower, done
a bit past al dente with a bunch of butter and quite tolerable.

Saumur-Champigny l'Inconnu des Varinelles 17 - very fruity, very
light for a Cabernet Franc, went well enough with the appetizer
and both main courses, perhaps better with the fish.

Dessert comes. I told the waiter to bring one of each.

La Figue et la Noix - the description was Pavlova of fig and walnut
ice cream, roast fig with milk chocolate and Port. It was pretty
much as advertised, but the fig (excellent) sauce didn't taste like
chocolate or Port. The ice cream was tremendous.

My chestnut cake with passionfruit icing, topped with a wafer of
hardened sugar and "refreshing" passionfruit sorbet with chestnut
bits was a moist but pretty standard cake, the sorbet a good tart
contrast. The chestnut bits were frozen, a hazard and a distraction
rather than the textural interest that had been intended. On the
side a gelatinous chestnut-flavored worm filled with passionfruit
puree and a dollop of passionfruit cream. I enjoyed the dessert
but had my doubts bout its starworthiness.

mignardises - a homemade blob of wbat tasted and felt exactly like
Pepperidge Farm Bordeaux cookie, ordinary yellow cake, and an odd
quince and mustard paste.
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