Salad Is Slaughter

I’m starting to wonder about Rolfe.  His hair has been getting really long and matted so we decided that it was about time to give him a bath and a haircut.  The boy loves baths and I think he’d jump in with us every day if we let him.  Not surprising since poodles were bred for water-related jobs.

We gave him his bath and dried him off real good, then we took out our new clippers.  They work really well; the only problem we have with them is that changing the blade is a chore.  It doesn’t slide off as easily as we would like.  We gave Rolfe his haircut and ended up with a huge pile of poodle hair.  It was really quite impressive.

Rolfe’s new haircut turned out allright.  There are a few tufts that should be smoothed out, and one or two spots that were cut a bit close to the skin, but overall he looks nice.  With a little practice, and if we actually read our poodle grooming book he should look even better in the future.

Janet decided that since the weather is still a bit nippy that Rolfe needed to wear his sweater.  I objected – in my book dogs don’t wear sweaters.  She won and for the past couple of days he’s been walking around the house in a black sweater.

The thing that bothers me is that Rolfe really likes it!  Last night Janet tried to take it off of him before she put him in his crate, and he wouldn’t let her do it.  He wanted to keep his sweater on all night.  That dog would tense up so that she had a hard time trying to remove it.

There are several possibilities going on here:

• He’s cold and the sweater keeps him comfortable.
• He’s embarrassed by his new haircut and he’s afraid if the other dogs see him that they’ll make fun of him.
• He likes the way it feels against his skin.
• He’s turned into a metrosexual and he thinks that the sweater is stylish.

I never thought that I would have a dog that wears clothes.  Somehow it just strikes me as wrong.

New Year’s Eve at Manresa has become a tradition.  I guess we like the idea of ending one year and beginning the next by dining on food prepared by a world-class chef – a nice ending and a good beginning.  When we sat down at our table there was an envelope with my name on it.  Inside was a card that was basically a two-for-the-price-of-one coupon for the chef’s tasting menu on our next visit.  They did the same thing last year, the only difference was that this year we have until the end of March to use it while last year we only had the month of January.

We started off with a glass of champagne.  While we were drinking that the server brought out an amuse.  This was a deep-fried item with (I think) some sort of cheese inside.  It was pretty good.

Next up was the chef’s famous “Egg”.  I first had “The Egg” in May of 2003, I had it again for New Years of 2003, and it was just as I remembered it.  The eggshells were open at the top and inside was a soft-boiled egg, maple syrup, heavy cream, vinegar and a bit of salt in layers.  It was excellent.  “The Egg” seems to have become a signature item for Chef David Kinch.

Janet and I selected different items for each course, and our wine parings were necessarily different.  I don’t know if we consciously meant to do that, but it turned out well because that way we could sample 2/3 of the menu.  It was difficult to pick the first course because all three selections looked great.  Janet began with the twice-cooked foie gras with spiced quince and toasted brioche.  It was really good, and not as oily as you would expect foie gras to be.

My first course was the pumpkin soup with chestnut and apple.  It was amazing.  I love tasting soups at high-end restaurants and this dish proved to me that I should keep doing that.  The pumpkin soup was wonderful, the chestnuts gave it a nice flavor and crunch, and the apples added something unusual to the pumpkin.

For the second course Janet selected the savoy cabbage with winter vegetables.  Before it arrived she said that if cabbage is cooked right, it’s great.  If it’s not, it smells and tastes like garbage.  She was betting that the chef knew how to cook cabbage.  It was a good bet.  The mix of vegetables had a nice flavor and had a firm texture.  It was a nice item.

I choose the Japanese fluke with radish and sesame.  When the dish arrived I was told that it was prepared “sashimi style.”  Yes, that means raw and I didn’t mind that a bit.  The thinly sliced fish had a good, fresh flavor and was not overpowering.  I liked this one a lot.

For the third course Janet had the smoked salmon with lentils and savoy cabbage.  She had been wanting salmon for quite a while, and I haven’t been in the mood, so she finally got her wish.  It looked like the salmon was wrapped around the lentils and cabbage.  I liked this dish but not as well as I liked mine.

My third course was scallops with black trumpet mushrooms and celery root mousse.  I was a bit surprised to see that my wine pairing was a pinot noir.  Usually I’m served a white wine of some kind with scallops but this pairing matched well.  The scallops were cooked perfectly the combination of the scallops with the mushrooms and celery root mousse worked well.

Janet’s main course was the roast filet of beef.  The meat was served very rare and it was wonderful.  The sauce was wonderful and the potatoes were some of the best I’ve ever had.  I liked this dish a lot.

My main dish was the veal cheeks braised in apple cider.  This wasn’t the first time I’ve ever had veal cheeks so I knew that they would be a little fatty.  They were, but the flavor was nice.  I liked what the apple cider did to them.  If I had to do it over again, I think I would have selected the roast suckling pig, because that also looked very interesting.

For dessert Janet had the chocolate mouse with caramel ice cream.  I also liked this one a lot.  The chocolate mousse was great and the caramel ice cream went well with it.

I had the Meyer lemon soufflé with blood orange and pistachio.  This one was also very good and very lemony.

As expected, New Years Eve dinner did not disappoint.  I just wish I could have tried some of the other dishes as well because they looked very interesting.  Now we have to figure out when we can go back and use our two-for-one coupon.

The menu can be found below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »