Dinner c/o Le Bec Fin

Last Friday my parents were in the Philadelphia area for a wedding, so they stuck around for the rest of the weekend to hang out with me. Of course, I was way busy, so hanging out really was dinner, dim sum, and dinner. Our first dinner was eaten at Le Bec Fin. The fancier father figure of of Brasserie Perrier, where we had my 27th birthday dinner. The Brasserie has since stopped existing, which is a bummer because I liked it very much. But no matter, Le Bec Fin wasn't too shabby. We decided to all have the Degustation of Heirloom Tomatoes with accompanying wine flight, eight courses, each, if you can believe it, paired with a smaller pour of wine. Note that the color of the table cloth is different in each one of these photographs. Barbara Ess and Stephen Shore would soooooo not approve of me.
The amuse bouche was a golden beet with crisp bacon, beet leaf and 25 year old vinegar. My bouche, it was amused.
The next course was Austrailian Amberjack Escabech with Brandywine tomato sorbet, petit heirloom tomato, wasabi, and micro celery. The dish was paired with N.C. Le Berceau Blanquette De Limoux, Languedoc. The tomato sorbet was just so intense, but in the best possible way. After so many seasons of Top Chef, I certainly was familiar with the concept but hadn't, in actuality, ever tried such a thing. The wasabi added a nice flavor but it wasn't that kick you in the face wasabi of many a sushi restaurant. A little more genteel. There was also, unless I've lost my mind a consomme vinagraitte component that really pulled it all together. This plate was clean when it was taken away from me.
Next up was the Roasted Diver Sea Scallop with grilled compressed watermelon, tomatillo and shiso-rosewater emulsion, paired with a 2007 Domaine Castera, Juracon Sec.
We then had the choice of either pan roasted mediterranean dorade (with yello tomato jam, roasted lobster mushroom, young leeks and vanilla essence) or a butter poached Maine lobster tail with organic Anson Mills grits, sungold tomatoes and truffle sauce American (paired with a 2007 Cotes du Rhone. I would imagine that many of you wouldn't be surprised to learn that I went with the lobster. I'm not sure I loved the grts element, but the sauce and the lobster itself were totally up my alley.
The main entree in all of this lavishness was a stuffed breast of squab, with Hudson Valley foie gras, marinated New Jersey heirloom tomato, zucchini mint puree and a salmis sauce (paired with a 2007 Domaiine Les Ordines...which was my favorite of the two reds in the meal). I can't lie, I didn't really feel the squab. One of the multitudes who served us did say, upfront, that the chef recommended the squab medium rare, to which my parents and I all nodded as if to say 'whatever the chef says.' The thing of it was that this was some pretty rare squab. I ate the majority of mine but at no point did I really fall in love with it. The foie gras aspect was delicate at best and the mint profile I didn't pick up on at all. The sauce, however, was fantastic and the crispy little wing they provided us (that at first I was not going to eat) turned out to be the best part of the dish for me. All three of us didn't really feel it, which is a shame.


You know what I did feel, and hard? The cheese cart. I said to my mother that if I could marry cheese and have cheese babies, I totally would, cannibalism aside. I had an aged gouda, a goat's cheese that is nothing like the bland tube like chevres that most everyone accepts as goat's cheese these days, a pungent cheese, a triple creme that made my heart leap and then freeze with joy and fat, and two others. Oh man. I'm going to go back just for the cheese, they can deal.
Then came the palate cleansing sorbets, green apple and raspberry. The green apple had a nice taste but not as pleasant a texture...it wasn't creamy really, it sort of had a mealy consistency, which we figured was because it was more apple than anything else, and apple doesn't really blend well. What?
Palates cleansed, it was time for the dessert cart, which boasted about 20 different sweet ways to end a meal. I found myself drawn to the lemon tart, while mom went for the I forget and dad went for something too. Wow, this was a week ago and I can't quite remember. Desserts were paired with a 2005 Coteaux Layon Rochefort, Domaine de la Motte.
Because I am still young, I decided to end the evening with a straight up caffeinated cappucino, which was delightful. And a little tray of sweets were also given...I forget what they're called. See those rectangular ones? Those are eensy teensy little pound cakes!
The camera failed me on a number of occasions in terms of photographic focus, which means that know that these photographs don't really make you oooh and aaahhh as much as they should. Then, my post photoshopping has made each have its own particular color palette, which is really not okay (this was drilled into me during college and, for the most part, I manage to live my life without worrying too much about the color casts on a majority of my images...but this is a case in point of why it does matter).

Oh, also? As we were walking to the restaurant? I saw Danny Bonaduce. Just saying.

Thanks goes to my father with suggesting the dinner location, and subsequent payment of the meal. It was a nice change of pace from the overly hearty, unsubtle, meals I'd been eating (and enjoying) through work.