� | click here for flickr! 2007-01-03 Gary Danko last night Monk took me to Gary Danko as a holiday gift (and sort of for our 6 months anniv. but more for christmas!) I arrived 25 minutes early for our reservation, so I took a seat at the bar and they poured me a glass of champagne. Monk showed up about 15 minutes later, and they took us to our seat. They poured him a glass of champagne as well and refilled mine (on the house. i like those small touches). they brought us a small gift from the kitchen... a tiny bowl of chestnut soup with duck confit. hot and very yummy. We took a long time choosing our menu choices, but finally we both decided to have 4 courses (you have an option of 3, 4 or 5 courses at a set price). we ordered a bottle of pinot noir (also something we don't usually do together. I do it with others, but rarely with him) .. Melville from Santa Maria Valley. 1999. it was really good and went pretty well with everything. I started with the My foie gras was pretty much perfection, but i'm a sucker for the stuff.. especially when seared. It was just the right texture.. creamy on the inside and a little crisp on the outside. a mini mouth orgasm with every bite. the apples & onions cut the richness a bit (but not much!). I know it isn't PC, but oh it's so decadently wonderful and lovely. my favorite course made by the chef (to be explained later) Monk's favorite course was probably his appetizer as well. His risotto was creamy, rich, lobstery and hearty. I also liked this one a lot. for second course we both chose from the seafood menu I had I wasn't a huge fan of the spaghetti squash and onions, but they did provide a blandness that was weirdly nice with the rich almost sweet flavor of the scallops which were REALLY delicious. for our third course I ordered quail and hans had squab but we switched plates when we realized we both liked the others food more. (squab is almost like red meat, which he doesn't eat) the Moroccan Spiced Squab with Chermoula and Orange-Cumin Carrots was medium rare on the rare side.. with a very striking extremely flavorful sauce.. the chermoula? (to me it was couscous) was filled with cumin flavors and amazing wild mushrooms. the meat was very tender and perfect. at this point, i'd been eating such rich food.. I realized I couldn't finish the squab AND eat my next course (which would have been tragic). I was becoming uncomfortable, and since these weren't roman times ..I had to stop eating and take a breather. They packaged up my squab for me. Hans had the Wild Mushroom Stuffed Quail with Braised Red Cabbage and Butternut Squash Pur�e and ate all of it. (turns out maybe he shouldn't have : ) . .but he found it pretty great. I had a bite, but wasn't as impressed. it was ok. he liked it a lot though, so it worked out perfectly. our 4th courses: hans had dessert and I had cheeeese. (my favorite course not made by the chef) the cheese cart guy came around and said I could have a choice of 4 cheeses from the tray of about 20.. and he'd describe all for me If i wished. the triple cream is the one i can't remember the name of. I'm pretty sure it was Pierre Robert though. .. . it was a very creamy brie with which they had taken off the top of the rind and placed truffles inside and then replaced the rind. this was pretty divine too. in fact very. the Sally Jackson goat was the only let down, and it wasn't that it was bad. it was nutty and earthy and quite good. It just didn't have the to-die-for quality that the other 3 had. the surprise cheese was Mimolette you can tell i love cheese, i hope. Monk had the Trio of Cr�me Br�l�e with Cookies they gave us a little bag with a gold foil wrapped muffin for the morning as a goodbye. and we got the little cookies they had brought out for free as well. I filled my Mr. Bento with squab, salad & little cookies today. yeehaw we both went home super uber full and stupid feeling. Monk wouldn't allow me to talk about food because he felt on the edge of sick from so much stuffing himself. anyway, I give it a positive review.. that's for sure. and I think i'm glad i did 4 courses, but i might have done it differently.. i needed ONE course that wasn't so rich.. maybe a salad as my second course. i will dream about that cheese. [ previous� �|� � next ]
|
|
� | ||
� � |
||
� | � |