review: a legal victory at aujourd'hui

i originally wrote this about a week ago, while i was in studio one early morning. unfortunately, lame-athena (an earlier version that is what scarpa, the uber-old, uber-slow athena machine in studio) wouldn't let me post this then, so here it is now.

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when they asked us if we were celebrating a special occasion, keith glibly replied "a legal victory." no need to elaborate that it was waseem's collection of the award from his small claims telemarketing claim. shortly thereafter, keith was mortified when they asked if we were all overage; soon after that, keith was mortified when he asked for a glass of milk...en francais. the waiter: "sorry, i don't speak french."

a brief word or two about the decor and atmosphere before the important stuff (the food, naturally). i would have to say that the lighting was absolutely perfect. i wasn't really a fan of the decor in general, though - probably because i don't tend to like patterns, especially patterns with flowers. the colors were great, though - all muted grays, blues, and browns, and i did like the fact that one wall was the wine collection.

and on to the food. first of all, they had a rather unusual bread selection - white roll, potato roll, rosemary flatbread, and walnut bread. a little different than sel de la terre, which is the gold standard in restaurant bread - especially in the choice of that flatbread. it was kind of odd - and not to say that it wasn't good, since it was great - it was nevertheless incongruous with the general idea of bread to start a meal. the potato roll was surprisingly potato-y, for those of us who are accustomed to the egg-yolk-yellow of sliced potato bread from the supermarket. it was rather nice, and in my opinion the best of the bread.

and first courses - i had the pork shank as an appetizer. the thing that surprised me most was the sheer quantity of food at this restaurant. It was a little bit too much - granted, it was expensive, but you're paying for the experience of the meal and perfect proportions - it's not an all-you-can-eat. your money's worth is a perfectly orchestrated meal, not an overfull stomach.

that aside, the appetizer was great. it came on top of a bed of green...stuff...i forget exactly what it was...as well as a tiny salad of mache, and a few pieces of sauteed leek. the plate was also drizzled with truffle cream, which was really the reason why i'd picked that appetizer, having never had truffle cream before. it was quite lovely, especially with the truffle cream, which tasted wonderfully earthy.

oh! we had an amuse-bouche (which touched us off on the topic of the phrase amuse-guele, which is sometimes used in place of amuse-bouche, though guele is a pejorative word) of onions with pastis and a bit of...darn, i forget what the green stuff was. i believe there was the word carrot in there too, somewhere. anyway, it was a surprisingly good combination of flavors - very clean and refreshing.

on to the second course. jessica had the vegetable gnocchi, natalia and keith had the venison, carrie had the veal, waseem had the beef tenderloin, and i had the duck. jessica and i also shared "forbidden rice risotto," which was really great with all of the cheese in it. i'm not so sure it had enough forbidden rice in it to call it "forbidden rice risotto," but it was good nonetheless. jessica's gnocchi had truffle foam on it, which was one of the spectacular accomplishments of the meal - the actual texture in your mouth was so emphemeral, but the flavor was stunning. It's too bad they don't sell essence of truffle in bottles.

the duck i got was done two ways - a leg and a breast - which seemed like an enormous amount of duck, as i'm used to just a breast. it was nice to have both light and dark meat, though the leg was slightly oversalted. the leg came over a toasted piece of brioche, which i'm not convinced was actually brioche, but which was a fabulous combination with the duck, and a clever way (i have no idea if this was actually the intention of the chef) of paying homage to the way that the French use bread to sop up
anything and everything. the duck also came with sauteed endives with a watermelon relish. i have to say that i wasn't impressed with the watermelon relish, but the taste of endives has really grown on me in the past couple of years. the duck breast, however, was perfect. i had a glass of hang time (robert mondavi really has his fingers in everything) with my meal, and even that seemed enormous even when taking into account that the glass was large.

and finally, dessert. i can confidently say that there have been a few truly fabulous desserts in my life. in random order: the grand marnier chocolate pot de creme at cyclops in seattle, jessica's rote gruze and iles flottantes, ice cream at craigie street bistrot, the hazelnut souffle at l'espalier, and now the honey cake at aujourd'hui. the dessert consisted of a small honey cake shaped like a fez in the middle of a long rectangular plate. the cake, about the size of a dixie cup, sat on a smear of a cassis sauce (great color). to the left was a small glass cup (shaped like the holy grail from indiana jones and the holy grail) with a scoop of chai ice cream sitting on top of a small pool of cassis sauce with blackberries in it. to the right was two tiny slices of sauteed (or perhaps poached) anjou pears with a dollop of whipped mascarpone that had definitely been infused with something, possibly the pear poaching liquid. i say that this was perfect not because it was beautiful, but because the combination of eating all three part was absolutely wonderful at the end of the meal, which had been a tad heavy - refreshing, perfectly balanced, and actually the embodiment of ethereal. i have not had such a good dessert in quite a while.

the meal ended with a two-tiered tea plate of tiny sweets - tiny (the size of a nickel) pistachio butter cookies, peach gummies (go figure, i have no idea why), tiny chocolates made of meringue and hazelnut ganache, tiny pink meringues, and little clusters of what looked to be coconut and white chocolate. i first had this sort of thing at l'espalier, and i must say that it's a wonderful thing to have at the end of a meal - having everyone share tiny tidbits of fun things. it was quite the surprise when they came out with another basket of sweets, after the tea service - a little basket of house-made marzipan with a raspberry chocolate filling, dipped in chocolate. the mark of a good chocolate is a thin coating of chocolate around the filling - too many chocolates have very thick coatings of chocolate. anyway, the marzipan bit was probably my favorite of the sweets at the the end, though i am rather biased since i am slowly eating away at the chunk of marzipan that jessica gave me back in january (that one would usually cook with, or at least use for something more glamourous than eating).

in retrospect, i am glad to have gone to aujourd'hui. i believe that that was the best service i've ever had at a restaurant, but i think that the balance of the food was slightly off. i enjoyed the food at craigie street bistrot more - it seemed to be more simple, even if it wasn't. jessica tells me that aujourd'hui and sibling rivalry are on the list of gourmet's top four restaurants in boston. i would say that the food may be slightly better at sibling rivarly in terms of flavor combinations - again, simpler - but the preparations are better at aujourd'hui, as are the desserts. i would say that my favorite restaurants are still pigalle and craigie street bistrot in boston, and cyclops in seattle. i'm not trying to perpetuate the stereotype that the best food you can get is really expensive, because you're not paying for food - you're paying for a meal. a meal you make at home can be just as good as restaurant food; it's just a different experience, and you have different expectations.