Well, it's been a month since my last review. Bad Lori! I'll try to finish up on these soon. I have two more after this review and I am done!
Sunday, October 19, 2008: French Regional Lunch at Bistro de Paris. Winery: Maison Louis Jadot (Burgundy region)
I wanted to preface this with my ignorance of many wines. I am not at all familiar with many French wines, so I thought the French Regional Lunch would be a good event to book. I did this one solo.
It was a bit awkward to find out where to check in at Bistro de Paris. Nobody who worked there seemed to know what any of us were talking about when we said we were attending the French Regional Lunch event. One of the cast members (and I use that term loosely) directed us (myself and a husband and wife) to head upstairs. When we went upstairs, another cast member said we needed to be downstairs. We asked him to verify where we needed to be, as we've been told to come upstairs. He finally directed us to wait in conveniently located chairs rather than go downstairs.
While I was waiting, I had a conversation with the couple. They told me that they wanted to attend Party for the Senses the previous night, but the event was SOLD OUT. That blew my mind, because in years past, I had never heard of the event being sold out. Apparently the event can hold 1500 people, and by the way it seemed crowded the night before, I could believe it.
Soon we were being led inside, and I was seated at a 4-top table. A guy who was also there solo was seated with me, and I discovered that he's a DIS member, JiminyFan. He seemed to be very knowledgeable about wine, and I had a nice conversation with him as people were entering the restaurant. And we both were snapping photos like Food Paparazzi. So it was all good.
I was pleasantly surprised that a lovely British couple that sat at our table was part of the RADP nosh group from a couple days earlier! Andrew and Sheila were a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the event a lot because of the table mates.
We had this sitting in front of us. Doesn't everyone deserve to have their napkin folded like a dinner jacket?
Here's a less washed-out view of the table setting at the table next to us:
What's inside the velvet bag? A Maison Louis Jadot keyring. Sorry about the blurry photo.
Amuse Bouche time. We had smoked salmon on crostini and a paté topped with a wee l'il gherkin. Ain't it cute?
Pardon the broken paté.
This was simple enough and tasty enough. And it was paired with
Pouilly Fuissé, 2007. But I think I should show you who our presenter was. His name is Marc Dupin, and he couldn't have been cuter or more charmingly
French. The photo doesn't do him justice as I caught him mid-speak:
He stood next to our table, trying to be in the center of the room so that all tables could see him. He had a lot of knowledge about the wines we were drinking, and he was naturally funny. Did I mention he was cute?
Now for the meal. I won't type it in French. I will provide the English translations.
First course:
Escargots with parsley butter in puff pastry, frisée salad with an egg poached in red wine
There were two wines served with this.
Puligny-Montrachet, 2006 and
Meursault, 2006. Both were white wines that paired well and also did NOT pair well with items on our plates. I tasted each wine alone, and then tried it after a bite of each part of the course. I'm trying to work off memory, but I knew one paired well with the egg, and the other paired well with the escargot. But they didn't pair well with both.
I think the Puligny was good with the egg, and the Mersault with the escargot. I found it amazing that I could tell when the wine seemed to "clash" with the dish, and my tablemates seemed to agree with my opinions of the pairings. Oh, how did they taste? Yummy. The egg was creamy on the inside, and the escargots was drenched in buttery sauce, just the way I like them. The puff pastry reminded me that I could get these snails as brioche poppers at the kiosk outside for a lot less money.
Second Course:
Beef tenderloin Burgundy-style, glazed potatoes, green asparagus and morels
Two red wines were paired with it.
Beaune-Bressandes, Domaine des Héritiers, 1er Cru, 2005 and
Pommard, Clos de la Commaraine, 1er Cru, 2005. Of the two wines, I really liked the Pommard best. Actually I think the Pommard was the favorite wine I had that afternoon.
Unfortunately, I was a bit embarrassed for Bistro de Paris for serving this to us. The beef was overdone, and the asparagus mushy. Yes, MUSHY. The only part of the dish that seemed to be cooked well were the potatoes. I did eat everything because the sauce was tasty, but it was not up the quality I expected for Bistro. And I know the rest of my table agreed.
Here's a pic of the wines we've had so far:
Dessert:
Poached pear & prunes in Côte de Beaune Villages
Well, the dried pear ring was nice. The rest of it? Bleh. The pears were poached in the same wine served as the last course, and they really didn't have a "dessert wine" to showcase. So the kitchen tried to force the dessert to match the wine by poaching the fruit in it,
Côte de Beaune Villages, 2004. It did not work. And I was a trooper and tried the prunes, but they were pretty gross. I had a few bites of pear and was done. Needless to say, I didn't like it paired with the wine. And the wine itself? I didn't like it nearly enough as the Pommard. Oh, did I mention that the pear was HARD? I have to wonder if the pears were ripe enough to cook, because you'd think after poaching, they would be spoon-tender. They weren't.
So what did I think of the event overall? I liked the presentation, and not just because I thought Marc was eye candy. He was fun and informative, so I enjoyed that part of the meal. But the meal itself? The words
boring,
uninspired come to mind. By that I mean, if you were going to a French meal, and you know it's going to feature Burgundy wines, how stereotypical is it to have escargot and Boeuf Bourguignon? I was hoping for a bit more creativity on the menu.
And when two of the three dishes failed to meet expectations, then you have to wonder if the event was worth the money you pay for it. When you think about the wines served, they didn't bring out the Thunderbird, so at least you know you're getting quality in the wines, at least.
They'd have to really improve on the food portion if I were to consider doing this event again.
Next: Vicki and Al's Diner makes up for the mediocre food at Bistro de Paris
We had little pistachio thingys.
