My Side Of The Table (2)

Or: Nice To Meet You, Mr. Andres!

Once again, this is just what I ate. The difference is that with the new trend of small plates, some of it was shared. I have to admit, most of it wasn’t.

Sunday: Brunch was an amazing Maine crab hash, peekytoe crab layered with buttery lyonnaise potatoes topped with perfectly scrambled eggs, fresh hot French bread with Wisconsin butter and house-made blackberry jam, and a fresh bearclaw (my favorite pastry in the whole world.) Lunch at the new Fleur began with transcendent truffled onion soup a la Hubert Keller, braised hamachi over soy-roasted onions with paprika ginger foam, ahi tacos with serrano pepper and avocado cream. (Robert had good stuff with chicken and beef.) Cheesecake lollipops with kiwi-lime gingerbread wafers for crust, rolled in a tart strawberry coulis, and chilled coconut tapioca soup with freeze-dried fruit and a papaya and mango sorbet quenelle. Then on to Max Brenner’s where we had chocolate: lovely Italian thick hot dark chocolate with vanilla, and a gorgeously decadent butterscotch chocolate cream milkshake with dulce de leche ice cream. The profiterole fondue – vanilla bean ice cream filling, banana chocolate fudge skewer, chocolate sauce – was mediocre. You didn’t miss anything with that one.

Monday: The chef kindly sent us a pastry basket with a bearclaw, cheese Danish and a chocolate croissant. I’m not saying “pain au chocolat” because it wasn’t, it had too much chocolate for that. I pick out the extra and give it to Robert, but the other tourists must like it that way. Silly tourists. Then perfect eggs, spinach sautéed with shallots and whole cloves of garlic, an amazing macerated composed fruit salad, croissant, jam, perfectly poached eggs with beurre-something sauce. Next more snacky-poo; hazelnut cream chocolate milk shake with vanilla bourbon ice cream and dark chocolate truffle whipped cream. An espresso. Dinner marked what I’m sure will only be our first visit to Jose Andres’ new restaurant, Jaleo. Robert and I shared: Rossejat, a “paella” of fried pasta with cuttlefish and Norwegian lobster, Cambas al Ajillo, shrimp sautéed with garlic. (It sounds so simple typed out like that. It wasn’t simple.) Tigres, breaded mussel fritters. The mussels are fried in their shells so you pick them up and dip them in the amazing sauce. Huevo Frito con Caviar – to say “fried egg with caviar” doesn’t do justice to the tableside demo and oh my dear lord, the flavor. The paella-du-jour (my sic) was vegetables! What are the odds? The food gods smiled on me. To have been there and not been able to eat the paella would have been tragic. Grilled asparagus with Romesco sauce and marinated raw shaved asparagus that crunched deliciously. A gorgeous little thing they call “tuna salad”. Dessert was olive oil ice cream with grapefruit granita, and perfect flan, and a chilled fruit soup with a sherry-soaked cake and yogurt-flavored ice cream.

Tuesday: Oatmeal with caramelized apples, eggs, cheese Danish, chocolate croissant, apple croissant. Lunch (at Fleur again) began with our good friend Juan bringing more onion soup. Happy sigh. Then ahi tacos, lemon-scallion risotto, gnocchi with San Marzano fondue and pesto, mussels in basil and parmesan, a fiery Thai-influenced rock shrimp stew with noodles, and more ahi tacos -- they’re unbelievably delicious. (Robert had two beef things and a chicken thing.) Pineapple carpaccio for dessert with edible flowers, sugared cilantro, lime sorbet and a cilantro granita. Oh, and more cheesecake lollipops. Snackies were a dulce de leche brioche and an almond croissant. Dinner was sushi, shrimp tempura with jalapeno, avocado, cilantro, tuna, kabayaki, lime and jalapeno sauce. Also striped bass with jalapeno, avocado, sriacha, lime juice and kabayaki. Not sure what kabayaki is, but it’s gooood.

Wednesday: Breakfast included fresh, hot, (made to order) little doughnuts served with bowls of nutella and cherry jam. Eggs, spinach, toast with more jam, lyonnaise potatoes which taste like equal parts butter and potato. We met our friend Paul B. (who doesn’t read blogs) at Jose Andres’ other new restaurant, China Poblano, for lunch. Yes, Chinese-Mexican cuisine. Not fusion, just simultaneous. Go, it’ll make sense to you then. The boys had pork and beef tongue and more pork. Ignore them. The guacamole was superb, the chipotle salsa had even more flavor than heat, if you can believe that. The wild mushroom tacos with guacamole were divine, but the tuna ceviche with crispy amaranth seeds and pecans was indescribably delicious. The crunch, the luscious texture, the taste --- my dears, go to Las Vegas. Eat this. You deserve it. The gazpacho was fruit; pineapple, cucumber, jicama, dragon fruit, chile pequin and queso fresco with an orange squeezed over the bowl after it’s set down in front of you. The scallop ceviche was fun. Halved limes were rubbed with chili oil, a perfect scallop with a bit of hot pepper rested on each. You pick it up by holding the lime, then tip the whole thing into your mouth at once as you squeeze. The lime juice squirts over everything inside your mouth. Dessert was called “Happy Buddha Giggling Taking A Bath”. And it was. From there we went straight back to Brenner’s for more chocolate snackies. More milkshakes, more rich, thick, hot dark creamy chocolate. Dinner was small-ish. Heirloon tomato soup with paper thin grilled cheese sandwiches. Lobster corn dogs, baby fried artichokes, cheese sampler with jellied huckleberries and Meyer lemon marmalade. Our friend Jalil hadn’t seen us in years, he was so pleased we came back that there was a procession of desserts. Toffee bread pudding with caramelized bananas, ice cream and a cookie. Berries with crème fraiche. Vanilla bean crème brulee, warm chocolate molten cake, lemon-lime pound cake, mocha brownie. Meyer lemon trio: lemon tart, warm lemon pudding cake, Meyer lemon olive gelato.

Thursday wasn’t much. A nice breakfast (see above) with hot caramel drinks. A stop at the Mad Greek on the way home. One last blueberry doughnut infusion in Victorville. After we collected our little dog (who had as much fun and food as we did, thanks, sis!) it was home to gym penance and the usual veggies & whole grains & protein powder regime. Nothing but fragrant memories and pix to flavor our lives until the next trip, which can’t happen soon enough for me.