Oh dear and I was just thinking of making you some pesto with my basil tree…
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Okay yes, I can pick those basils off. This is hard because I love little bites and they have the best little bites (savory beignets, smoked tomato tartare caviar crostini! that bread & butter! those little soups).
Thank you. I will definitely have my dessert en croute’d.
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Basil: I eat it. I serve it. I try to grow it. But I just don’t love it. It must know I don’t because it always dies on me. Yours is absolutely lovely @ebethsdad.
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You’re here! I hope you’re having a great food time!
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read nicole rucker’s dappled cookbook and it seems this is how bakers love to store their fruit, the ones that continue to ripen (climacteric) after picking…placing them in a single layer in a baking sheet lined with paper towels and arranging them based on ripeness…
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Thanks! Here and gone. Didn’t dine around too much this trip: Republique, Gjusta, and met a friend in Little Tokyo for lunch at Tenno Sushi.
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Well, that sounds great.
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Went back tonight for my wife and her best friend’s birthdays. Interesting subterfuge as each tried to subvert the other to pay for it. A lot of cloak and dagger and sneaking credit cards while pretending to go to the bathroom. Much more interesting than when someone goes to the bathroom when the check shows up. When we went for my birthday there were a few misses, but tonight was perfect. The service, as always, was impeccable. Warm, knowledgeable, and not a hint of snobbery.
We started with gruyere, horseradish beignets and salmon roe eclairs. So delicious! My wife won’t touch caviar, but picked up the last of the roe with her finger!
We followed that with bread and butter, little gems salad, and Brussels Sprouts with bacon, poached egg, and frisee. I didn’t take pictures of them because; I already posted pictures of the salad, everyone knows what a baguette and butter looks like, and we dove into the sprouts too quickly. I don’t know how the incredible food photo journalists like @Chowseeker1999, @Nemroz, and @J_L do it, but the sprouts were decimated by the time I thought to take a picture.
Our wonderful waiter, Anthony, stopped me when I was about to order a pasta saying it was way too much food. He was so right. Our main was the pork specialty, a wonderful conglomeration of perfectly cooked loin chop, belly, Italian sausage, black sausage, charred long beans, roasted peaches, and polenta topped with fresh corn. Superb! Surprises were the charred beans - so flavorful, and the perfectly cooked belly.
Thanks to Anthony’s sage advice we actually (barely) had room for the en croute dessert. This was stunning. The best raspberries I have ever tasted roasted with perfect peaches spooned over lemon verbena ice cream and fresh raspberries topped with an incredibly thin, crispy puff pastry crust. I have been making puff pastry for 40 years and I have a bare inkling of how they pulled this off. So very, very good.
Did not mention the wine as I didn’t have much as the designated driver for the birthday girls. I will say that the sommelier on duty was very helpful and very personable.
All in all a wonderful evening!
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That dessert sounds and looks heavenly.
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It was so good! You have to try it.
A wonderful account of the evening. Thank you.
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Breakfast delivered by dear husband…
Kimchi Fried Rice - Beef Short Rib, Pickled Radish, Sesame Seeds, Soft Poached Eggs
…along with the standing order of Multigrain Loaf and a Sweet - today it was a repeat of the Basque Burnt Cheesecake. 
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What a sweet hubby. Such a lovely evening.
How long has that been on the breakfast menu? Looks great.
I’m not sure. He brings this stuff home at random. It was really good. Not a lot of kimchi funk but nice acid and heat from the pickled peppers
the kimchi fried rice? Pretty sure it’s been on the breffus menu since day one.
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Damn. I’m not sure I ever realized there was a breakfast menu. Just got in line and looked at what was in front of me.