TFL Menu

Without further ado, the menu from my dinner at The French Laundry:

• “Oysters and Pearls” - “Saboyon” of pearl tapioca with Beau Soleil oysters and California white sturgeon Oestra caviar.
  As fantastic as advertised. A great blend of textures in your mouth, with all sorts of little explosions from the caviar and tapioca
• Moulard duck “foie gras au torchon” with bergamot orange “marmelade” and toasted “brioche”
  Delicious, but way too much. A serving was about a half inch slice of torchon about the diameter of a hockey puck.
• Crispy skin filet of Atlantic black bass, Jacobsen’s farm Swiss chard, glazed turnips, and Tellicherry pepper “gastrique”
  Erik and I both shrugged on this one. It was fine, but not amazing.
• “Peas and Carrots” - Sweet butter poached Maine lobster with young pea shoots and garden carrot butter.
  This was the best dish of the evening. The lobster was succulent and I’m a sucker for peas.
• All day braised Eden farms Berkshire pork belly with forest mushrooms “a la grecque” and mushroom vinaigrette
• Pan roasted “chateaubriand” of nature fed veal with baby artichokes, green garlic, oven roasted roma tomatoes and nicoise olives
• “Roccolo” with roached royal Blenheim apricots and candied hazelnuts
• Coconut sorbet with warm banana bread “muffin”
• Delice au chocolat et caramel with caramel “anglaise” and chocolate “dentelle”

Looking back on the menu, I still have questions about what I ate. Yet, not once during the meal did a server offer up any unsolicited information about the food. I think this lack of excitement and exuberance (and perhaps shock and awe) are what left me feeling a little let down by the meal,