We had been waiting with three other couples for tables at Fugaise. We were standing at the vestibule, waiting for the hostess to get our tables ready, and since you can’t see the dining room until you go in, I wondered if they had over-reserved. Especially, because the hostess took our name and then disappeared for more than five minutes. Fortunately the wait was not too long and I was also able to hear how some people live. In between talking with Linda, I overheard this man say to his wife(?) that he wanted to install a 6-burner stove and that updating the kitchen would be two-hundred grand. More talking to Linda, then something about how that was on top of ten thousand he had spent last month…
So after a while, the hostess came in and brought us to a small table in the main dining room (last time we were here, we had sat in a smaller room beyond the main dining room). The small dining room was completely full, and a few waiters moved this way and that serving people. Our server brought menus, lit the small votive candle on the table and told us all about the special five-course Valentine menu.
The small two page menu contained four appetizers and four entrees. We selected the Scallops in Salsify, Butter Lettuce, Sauce Choron, the Root Vegetable Tart with Sweet Onion Puree, Gruyere Fondue, Poached Egg, and for the entrees I got the Monkfish with Parsnip, Portobello Mushroom, Bacon, Red Wine (minus the bacon), and Linda got the Salmon with Roasted Mushroom Polenta, Zucchini, Tarragon Cream. To drink Linda had the Paul Zinck, Pinot Blanc (Alsace 2006), and I had Bouchard Pere & Fils, Bourgogne Rouge (Burgundy 2005). For dessert we had the Warm Chocolate Cake with Vanilla ice cream, Cinnamon Crème Anglaise, Prune, Macadamia Nuts.
So about the food. Soon after we sat down they brought a amuse-bouche; a potato-croquette with some sauce, I now forget. Since we told the server that we were sharing the scallops and the tart, he brought the scallops in two plates, one scallop for each of us (nice touch). The scallops were great. Very tender and well balanced. The root vegetable tart was also very good. The tart itself had caramelized onions, the root vegetables were just right, and the poached egg made for a nice contrast to the vegetables, particularly with the soft yolk. Of the fish, mine was better than Linda’s. All together, as we expected, the food was very good.
In the middle of dinner we order a second glass of wine, and the server told us it was on him (the restaurant), for our patience waiting to get a table. Another nice touch.
To end the meal, we decided to ask for dessert and skip the coffee (last time here we wanted espresso and either they didn’t have any or it was pretty bad, so I did not want to repeat that experience). The dessert, as last time, was just ok. I don’t know why I keep asking for warm chocolate cake. Most restaurants have pretty much the same thing, and it becomes too similar from place to place.
Cafe Barbette for dinner
Mussels
Lemon Sole (me)
Shrimp Risotto (lb)
Racouderie (lb)
Joseph Drouhin Beaujolais (me)
McCallen 12 (me)
Jameson (lb)
Warm Chocolate cake (share)
Caesar Salad (share)
house red
Shrimp Risotto (lb)
Shrimp Spaghetti (edq)
Chocolate mascapone torte (share)
Sat outside since the air was going at full blast inside. Our server turned out to be Stephanie, a neighbor from 214 Oak Grove.
Stella (edq)
Sigha (lb)
Esban salad mock duck
Green Curry Shrimp (lb)
Bangkok Sea Breeze (edq)
Summit
Corona
Mediterranean Platter
House Salad
Avocado Quesadilla
Portobello flatbread
Mushroom Pistachio Terrine
Ravioli
Sapphire Gin Martini
glass of Syrah Hess
Linda and I tried Indio, a new Mexican Restaurant in Minneapolis. Indio tries to be like Masa, but at least on this ocassion, it didn’t make it. The Margaritas were made with regular mix. The food was better than average, but not great. The appetizers took forever to arrive. We ordered a mushroom Tlayuda and a Guacamole. The tlayuda, a Mexican thick tortilla with a vegetarian topping was the better of the two. The Guacamole was nothing more than chinks of not-quite-ripe avocado and tomato. The chips were very average. Then we ordered the Pescado Maya and the Olmeca. The Olmeca, is described as Seared Ling Cod served with a roasted red pepper flauta, in a huitlacoche sauce, sautéed spinach and a chayote jicama slaw. The fish wasn’t that bad, the sauce made out of huitacloche, a fungus that grows on corn was also good. Unfourtunatelly the color of the sauce is not very appetizing, so they would need to work on presentation. The Pescado Maya, Achiote marinated Corvina served with parsley rice, jicama tomato salad, Morita chile sauce, garnished with pineapple salsa was too sweet and the rice was cold and uneadible.
We order Tlayudas con Chapulines (grasshoppers on tortillas). But the only Ricardo and I eat them. The grasshoppers taste crunchy and salty. they could make the next fried food snack in the States.
The Enchiladas de Jaiba at El Ciruelo restaurant are great
The “El Ciruelo” restaurant in Tepoztlan is one of my favorite restaurants in Mexico. The restaurant has a great view of the Tepozteco mountains, it has a great patio, good food and live music. Here we are enjoying lunch.
From left to right, it’s me, Paula, Ricardo, and Linda
After quite a long hiatus and a number of tries, we finally were able to get a small group to go out for happy hour. We started at Azia, where it took a while to convince the server to allow us to put three tables together to sit at the bar. Linda had picked me up at work, and we were the first to get to Azia, soon after Ann and Liz came in and then Lori, Elizabeth and her husband Erk (whIt’s been a long time since we have gone out for happy
Linda and I went to Christo’s for dinner tonight. We went there before the Walker performance, so we had exactly one hour to eat. We entered into a very busy restaurant and there were two women waiting to be seated before us. I was already thinking that maybe we would have to go someplace else, but the hostess found a table for us.We ordered a beer (lb), wine (me), a hummus and chilled marinated octopus to start with. For the entrees Linda had a vegeterian mousaka and falaffil and I had the vegeterian mousaka. We also had small Greek Salads.
menu
HummusChilled OctapodiVeggy SamplerGreek SaladVeggy MousakaSummitCabbernet
