Jul. 31st, 2023 11:54 am
Elite eats
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muckefuckFifty-three in two weeks and I can finally say I've eaten at a Michelin-starred restaurant.
RJ's week-long staycation ended today. We went on a bang last night with the third of his high-end meals. He gave me my pick of which one(s) to join him for out of Jeong, North Pond, and Temporis, so of course I chose the priciest (and only non-refundable) option. I was nervous all day but everything turned out nigh-perfect.
The service, though superior, was not flawless. I thought there were some odd lulls (notably the ten minutes between when we were seated and when the server returned to take our drink order), but overall it was friendly without being familiar. There were some fun moments, such as when I puckishly drew attention to an ant in my microgreens. The server didn't apologise but she did offer to replace the dish. I told her I wasn't bothered, but they still comped me a glass of wine.
And what a glass! RJ isn't a drinker so we opted not to do the wine pairing but I had a cocktail to start and was trying to decide on something fortified to finish with. The sommelier offered me three options. The first I forget, the second was a Madeira, and the third options was something "Madeira-adjacent". "Would you like a surprise?" he asked and I assented. He was positively giddy when he returned with a 1968 Rivesaltes. Yes, dear reader, I drank wine older than myself last night.
The only clunker of the night was the duck breast, which felt a little perfunctory. Oddly, it came with duck confit "gnocchi" that was outstanding; we agreed we'd have much rather just had more of those. The wagyu beef was nice, but I thought it was their seafood that really shone: marinated razor clam, an uni amuse, fluke escabeche, and a butter-poached piece of lobster that was to die for. When I showed him a picture of the duck, Big Red mocked the plating as being "so 2015" but of course it was new to me. I especially appreciated the use of edible flowers and tiny leaves that were easy to eat. (I've always struggled with what to do with lemon balm, for instance; pick it when it's the size of your fingernail and garnish a dessert with it is one option, apparently).
But what really made the evening for me was RJ's mood. I've seldom seen him as happy as he was last night. Maybe I deserve a little of the credit, at least indirectly, since I'd gotten him invited to a cocktail party earlier in the day which I wasn't able to attend myself (since it was rescheduled from Friday due to storms) and it went smashingly apparently. It's seldom that I get him to myself and those 2+ hours were a reminder of all the things I enjoy about him.
I thought I'd be up all hours afterwards but I was full without being overfull and probably could have fallen asleep close to my regular time if I'd made a dedicated effort to instead of lying in bed replaying the delights of the evening. One of these was realising how impressed my younger self would be to see my now, dropping $300 on a meal without an ounce of regret and comporting myself with complete ease in an elite eatery. This is what you hardly dared dream for yourself, hon.
RJ's week-long staycation ended today. We went on a bang last night with the third of his high-end meals. He gave me my pick of which one(s) to join him for out of Jeong, North Pond, and Temporis, so of course I chose the priciest (and only non-refundable) option. I was nervous all day but everything turned out nigh-perfect.
The service, though superior, was not flawless. I thought there were some odd lulls (notably the ten minutes between when we were seated and when the server returned to take our drink order), but overall it was friendly without being familiar. There were some fun moments, such as when I puckishly drew attention to an ant in my microgreens. The server didn't apologise but she did offer to replace the dish. I told her I wasn't bothered, but they still comped me a glass of wine.
And what a glass! RJ isn't a drinker so we opted not to do the wine pairing but I had a cocktail to start and was trying to decide on something fortified to finish with. The sommelier offered me three options. The first I forget, the second was a Madeira, and the third options was something "Madeira-adjacent". "Would you like a surprise?" he asked and I assented. He was positively giddy when he returned with a 1968 Rivesaltes. Yes, dear reader, I drank wine older than myself last night.
The only clunker of the night was the duck breast, which felt a little perfunctory. Oddly, it came with duck confit "gnocchi" that was outstanding; we agreed we'd have much rather just had more of those. The wagyu beef was nice, but I thought it was their seafood that really shone: marinated razor clam, an uni amuse, fluke escabeche, and a butter-poached piece of lobster that was to die for. When I showed him a picture of the duck, Big Red mocked the plating as being "so 2015" but of course it was new to me. I especially appreciated the use of edible flowers and tiny leaves that were easy to eat. (I've always struggled with what to do with lemon balm, for instance; pick it when it's the size of your fingernail and garnish a dessert with it is one option, apparently).
But what really made the evening for me was RJ's mood. I've seldom seen him as happy as he was last night. Maybe I deserve a little of the credit, at least indirectly, since I'd gotten him invited to a cocktail party earlier in the day which I wasn't able to attend myself (since it was rescheduled from Friday due to storms) and it went smashingly apparently. It's seldom that I get him to myself and those 2+ hours were a reminder of all the things I enjoy about him.
I thought I'd be up all hours afterwards but I was full without being overfull and probably could have fallen asleep close to my regular time if I'd made a dedicated effort to instead of lying in bed replaying the delights of the evening. One of these was realising how impressed my younger self would be to see my now, dropping $300 on a meal without an ounce of regret and comporting myself with complete ease in an elite eatery. This is what you hardly dared dream for yourself, hon.
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