Foray into La Foret
Last night we celebrated, in the forest, in true French, pastoral style. The house (or former inn) tucked into the woods so neatly that we almost didn’t see it right away. We passed dreamy, lonely looking houses down a dusty, one-lane road.
The inn itself had a quaint and inviting look to it with brass fixtures and a old-timey bar to the right. Comfy, green leather couches and small wooden tables beckoned to us as we were led to our table by the front windows. Even at six o’clock at night we could see the trees illuminated by outside lights and the branches seemed to wave ever so slowly to us.
Okay, what about the freakin’ food?
I’ve been a huge fan of prix fixe menus ever since I dined at Tommy Toy’s in San Francisco as a teenager. A prix fixe menu (prix fixe meaning “fixed price”) includes several courses and dessert sometimes preceded by an appetizer or amuse bouche (a tasty morsel to “amuse the mouth”). Also, the prix fixe allows a person to try many different dishes, often the best dishes the restaurant serves. It’s an elegant way to dine and I love the hedonistic quality of the table service, the presentation of the dishes and the feeling of being culinary royalty.
So, prix fixe at La Foret (they called it a tasting menu) last night included:
Amuse bouche of salmon ravioli with feta cheese cream sauce
Foie gras on top of thinly sliced potato with a light Sauternes sauce
Scallop served on puff pastry with saffron cream sauce
Ahi tuna seared with horseradish and thyme sauce
Roasted quail with huckleberries and wild rice
Tournedos of beef with golden chanterelles and herb ginger brandy sauce
Souffle Grand Marnier with fresh berries
Every bite was gorgeous and bolstered by the talents of a chef who knows how to cook every type of fish and game properly. The dessert tasted like the airiest cloud with a luscious cream sauce and the sweet-tart pungence of the berries.
Needless to say, we drove home on a cloud of divine culinary memories aided by a 1999 Nuits St. Georges Bordeaux. Ahhh, the luxe life…
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