Mariellen's (a)Musings: Fall into Spring!

This evening my friends Liz and Michal Sobieski, just off a Mediterranean cruise, came up to Paris to spend a few days with me. We had made some tentative plans for the weekend, and it looked like we weren’t going to be able to eat at the hotly popular “Spring” restaurant because it was, well, so hotly popular that we couldn’t get reservations. But Spring called me this morning to say that they had just had a cancellation and could accommodate a party of three at 7:00 or 8:00! Liz and Michal hoped to be to the apartment by about 7:00, so I went out on a limb and said “yes,” we’ll happily take the 8:00. Their transport into the city took longer than expected, so they got here around 7:30, just in time to clean up a bit and catch a cab to the resto. Whew!!!

It just so happened that we got the same table as I was able to snag almost exactly a year ago under similar circumstances! http://mariellen-musing.blogspot.fr/2012/10/buckets-of-buddies-and-bonuses-thursday.html The moral of the story: if you get a "sorry, we're full" response, be flexible and ask them to give you a call if they have a last-minute opening - you might be pleasantly surprised!

Here are some photos and brief descriptions of our dinner:

REALLY delicious Kir Royales for our aperitif!

Our amuse-bouche: creamy yellow squash soup with chestnuts and lardon (blanched and then crispy fried bacon), almost-Prosciutto-style dried ham with charred sweet peppers, and smoked trout - all were deeeelicious with whole grain rolls and very fine salted butter. Just the thing to get the appetite cranked up if it wasn't already!

Next, buttery oh-so-tasty intensely flavored poached languoustines with a only-slightly-acidic orange sauce, avocado puree, carrots, radishes and beets. Sorry that I gobbled almost all of my langoustine before taking the photo! I can assure you that we put our bread to work soaking up every drop of these delicious sauces!

Next, gently cooked delicate and flaky sole and a poached oyster in an astonishing crème fraîche sauce that was subtly flavored with fresh ginger and horseradish. WOW!!!! Just enough zing and flavor to enhance but not overpower the delicate fish. The watercress accenting this dish provided another just-pungent-enough fresh herbal essence to the whole thing.

Our final "regular" course was duckling two ways. The first way: plated slices of duck breast with a deliciously reduced, pure and non-fatty duck stock and fabulously smooth and smoky roasted eggplant puree, chives and dried apricots. The second way: roasted duck thigh meat and deeply earthy sauteed cèpes mushrooms served in a little copper gratin pan for us to share. The intense aroma from these dishes arrived at our table before the food did!

Then came desserts - four of 'em! Walnut cake with walnut cream, blackberries with fabulous thyme & rosemary ice, Poires Belle Helene (poached pears with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce and - unusual bonus - little bits of candied ginger tucked under the pear), and pistachio cream with pistachio tuille cookies.

And bonus of bonuses, when we had finished our wine (a 2011 Villard Vallon Viognier) and they brought "l'addition" (our check) they also brought three tiny cream puffs filled with the most deeeeelicious cream and sprinkled with coarse sugar. They even know how to sweeten the pain of paying the bill!