Fine Dining at Acquerello
Nov. 15th, 2015 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tuftearsSome of you may remember last year we celebrated ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dracosphynx and chipotle's birthday at Parallel 37. It was very tasty.
This year was a slightly different Haute Cuisine place: Acquerello.
From the moment we stepped into the dining room, I knew we were in for an epic dining experience. I have never seen such attentive waiters before, and I don't really want that much attention from most servers, honestly. They helped us get seated, and when I got up to check for the bathroom, it was no more than seconds before someone pointed me the right way.
It was a pretty small restaurant too. I doubt you could have seated more than 20 people or so in the main room. There were, I believe, side rooms for more private dining experiences.
As is apparently tradition for these Haute Cuisine restaurants, we began with some amuse bouches and palate cleansers before we had even placed our orders. This was orange juice, very tart to the point of being almost bitter.
Unfortunately, I lost the picture of the first amuse bouche we received; it was a greenish round about the size of a stack of five quarters or so. Celery flan, evidently.
These were tiny puff pastries stuffed with something like clam chowder, I think. Meaty tasting gravy, at any rate. Apparently I was intended to pop them whole into my mouth and eat them that way; instead I wound up making a bit of a mess trying to bite into it. Whoops. -5 to Savoir Faire!
Cauliflower custard! Not bad.
The staff brought over a selection of breads. I asked the waiter to choose for me, he wound up giving me two rather than settle on a single one. These are dark bread and light bread, but there wasn't really much of a difference-- it's not like the dark bread was whole wheat or anything like that.
Served on the side were salt and unsalted butter. I'm not sure what the little flecks on the butter are. Cracked peppercorns, maybe? Not bad bread but not amazing.
As we finished up with the bread, the omnipresent waiters brought us knives. It's like we were supposed to cut our food with miniature runeswords. -_-
Here we have what the menu tells me is "Snake River Farms pork belly with radicchio and pickled apple". It was delicious, much better than the pork belly served at the Google cafeterias.
"Tomato gnocchi, stracciatella, Thai basil, yellow tomatoes,and aged Balsamic vinegar," says the menu. They were delicious! I could definitely taste the vinegar. I had expected this to be served alongside the other ingredients, but you can tell by now that's not the way it's done at Haute Cuisine restaurants. No, everything must be served on entirely too large plates all their own, so they can be appreciated in solitude, protected from contamination by the hoi polloi of other entrees.
This is "pancetta wrapped venison loin with butternut squash, pear, chanterelles,and red onion jam." It was delicious! Perfectly tender, all the individual bits really contributed and it was done in two portions so you had a second chance to appreciate every flavor. That said, I couldn't tell you the difference between venison and beef if my life were at stake. It was a wild-tasting beef as far as I was concerned.
With the main entrees done, they asked what we'd like to drink. I unwisely chose green tea, and they brought a selection of sugar cubes for us to add to our beverages.
No, I hadn't seen brown sugar cubes before. Yes, I know brown sugar is a thing. I just hadn't seen it made into sugar cubes.
The green tea was... Too bitter. Inspecting the tea pot, I found out why it was-- they were leaving the tea leaves right in the pot, and a large amount. Leaving it to steep like that will leech tannins into the beverage. I did in fact find use for the aforementioned sugar cubes.
This was delicious! The menu claims it's "Flambéed apple gelato, brown butter, lemon ricotta, yuzu meringue, and bee pollen." Sadly, they didn't actually cover the gelato in brandy and set it on fire as I was hoping; maybe that got done in the kitchen or something. It was all yummy though.
chipotle had a tiramisu that I would never have recognized as one if he hadn't informed me that was what it was. It had been served as an innocuous chocolate-covered puck of some sort, and the waiter then drizzled hot chocolate syrup into a hole in the middle. This resulted in a sort of lava cake experience, and you can see the evidence of the chocolate syrup devastation on the plate above.
dracosphynx is enjoying the 'birthday' dessert special which seemed to have a little of everything. I forget exactly what he had for his regular dessert.
You'd think that was all, right? But no, they brought us up a cart of sweets and asked us to each pick three. Makes sense; we had ordered the four-course Prix Fixe menu which includes a dessert entree, but for people who only chose three, it would be a good idea to give them a small sweet at the end of the meal to leave them feeling satisfied.
I asked the waitress to pick; all the options looked good. I wound up with, evidently: a chocolate covered caramel, a chocolate covered candied orange peel, and an almondine cookie.
All in all, a very tasty dinner! Pricey as you might imagine, but it's worth doing once a year. Certainly tasted better than my fondue experience. (shifty sideways glance)
Thanks for carting me along,dracosphynx and chipotle!
dracosphynx and chipotle's birthday at Parallel 37. It was very tasty.This year was a slightly different Haute Cuisine place: Acquerello.
From the moment we stepped into the dining room, I knew we were in for an epic dining experience. I have never seen such attentive waiters before, and I don't really want that much attention from most servers, honestly. They helped us get seated, and when I got up to check for the bathroom, it was no more than seconds before someone pointed me the right way.
It was a pretty small restaurant too. I doubt you could have seated more than 20 people or so in the main room. There were, I believe, side rooms for more private dining experiences.
As is apparently tradition for these Haute Cuisine restaurants, we began with some amuse bouches and palate cleansers before we had even placed our orders. This was orange juice, very tart to the point of being almost bitter.
Unfortunately, I lost the picture of the first amuse bouche we received; it was a greenish round about the size of a stack of five quarters or so. Celery flan, evidently.
These were tiny puff pastries stuffed with something like clam chowder, I think. Meaty tasting gravy, at any rate. Apparently I was intended to pop them whole into my mouth and eat them that way; instead I wound up making a bit of a mess trying to bite into it. Whoops. -5 to Savoir Faire!
Cauliflower custard! Not bad.
The staff brought over a selection of breads. I asked the waiter to choose for me, he wound up giving me two rather than settle on a single one. These are dark bread and light bread, but there wasn't really much of a difference-- it's not like the dark bread was whole wheat or anything like that.
Served on the side were salt and unsalted butter. I'm not sure what the little flecks on the butter are. Cracked peppercorns, maybe? Not bad bread but not amazing.
As we finished up with the bread, the omnipresent waiters brought us knives. It's like we were supposed to cut our food with miniature runeswords. -_-
Here we have what the menu tells me is "Snake River Farms pork belly with radicchio and pickled apple". It was delicious, much better than the pork belly served at the Google cafeterias.
"Tomato gnocchi, stracciatella, Thai basil, yellow tomatoes,and aged Balsamic vinegar," says the menu. They were delicious! I could definitely taste the vinegar. I had expected this to be served alongside the other ingredients, but you can tell by now that's not the way it's done at Haute Cuisine restaurants. No, everything must be served on entirely too large plates all their own, so they can be appreciated in solitude, protected from contamination by the hoi polloi of other entrees.
This is "pancetta wrapped venison loin with butternut squash, pear, chanterelles,and red onion jam." It was delicious! Perfectly tender, all the individual bits really contributed and it was done in two portions so you had a second chance to appreciate every flavor. That said, I couldn't tell you the difference between venison and beef if my life were at stake. It was a wild-tasting beef as far as I was concerned.
With the main entrees done, they asked what we'd like to drink. I unwisely chose green tea, and they brought a selection of sugar cubes for us to add to our beverages.
No, I hadn't seen brown sugar cubes before. Yes, I know brown sugar is a thing. I just hadn't seen it made into sugar cubes.
The green tea was... Too bitter. Inspecting the tea pot, I found out why it was-- they were leaving the tea leaves right in the pot, and a large amount. Leaving it to steep like that will leech tannins into the beverage. I did in fact find use for the aforementioned sugar cubes.
This was delicious! The menu claims it's "Flambéed apple gelato, brown butter, lemon ricotta, yuzu meringue, and bee pollen." Sadly, they didn't actually cover the gelato in brandy and set it on fire as I was hoping; maybe that got done in the kitchen or something. It was all yummy though.
chipotle had a tiramisu that I would never have recognized as one if he hadn't informed me that was what it was. It had been served as an innocuous chocolate-covered puck of some sort, and the waiter then drizzled hot chocolate syrup into a hole in the middle. This resulted in a sort of lava cake experience, and you can see the evidence of the chocolate syrup devastation on the plate above.dracosphynx is enjoying the 'birthday' dessert special which seemed to have a little of everything. I forget exactly what he had for his regular dessert.You'd think that was all, right? But no, they brought us up a cart of sweets and asked us to each pick three. Makes sense; we had ordered the four-course Prix Fixe menu which includes a dessert entree, but for people who only chose three, it would be a good idea to give them a small sweet at the end of the meal to leave them feeling satisfied.
I asked the waitress to pick; all the options looked good. I wound up with, evidently: a chocolate covered caramel, a chocolate covered candied orange peel, and an almondine cookie.
All in all, a very tasty dinner! Pricey as you might imagine, but it's worth doing once a year. Certainly tasted better than my fondue experience. (shifty sideways glance)
Thanks for carting me along,
dracosphynx and chipotle!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-11-17 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-11-17 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-11-17 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-11-17 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-11-17 04:21 am (UTC)I'll definitely have to make kytten-eyes at you guys for another group dinner trip when I'm in a position to attend FC again. If I can afford the plane ticket, I can afford the meal, and it will be good to catch up face-to-face.
(ObPedantry: Isn't it "Haute"? It's a French adjective.)
no subject
Date: 2015-11-17 05:53 pm (UTC)You've gone on a diet or you've discovered food allergies?
no subject
Date: 2015-11-17 07:10 pm (UTC)At present, it's bad enough that even traces of untreated dairy products cause problems, and that the pills only greatly reduce rather than eliminate symptoms. That means that while I can enjoy a restaurant meal, I shouldn't make plans for the rest of the day even if I do use the pills.
Milk that's been pre-treated with the enzyme (sold as lactose-free in grocery stores) is fine. Ditto lactose-free cheese (made from lactose-free milk). That rules out a milk allergy or other food reaction: if the enzyme solves it, it's lactose-intolerance, because that's literally the only thing the enzyme does (cleave that one sugar).
My character, of course, can still eat all of the dairy he wants. =^.^=
no subject
Date: 2015-11-17 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-11-17 07:15 pm (UTC)This, and having to check ingredients lists for "modified milk ingredients", gives me a lot of sympathy for people with bona fide food allergies. The worst I'll get is 12 hours of discomfort. Someone with an allergy would be in epi-pen territory if they or anyone else screwed up.
no subject
Date: 2015-11-17 07:16 pm (UTC)