Melisse

F and L know fully well of my love for French epicurean extravagances. Being the supportive sports they are, they would indulge me in accompanying me to one establishment of my choice during our girls' weekend. (Last year, we went to L'Espalier in Boston. Unfortunately, I didn't write it down right away that I no longer recall enough to share that experience.) We arrived at Melisse at dusk. As soon as we walked in, the decor was welcoming, the staff were friendly, everything seemed to be perfect without any effort. It was quite an assurance that we'd have an enjoyable evening ahead.

The bread tray came soon after we sat down. The selection included brioche, basil brioche, bacon foccacia, olive, ciabatta and French. I love both bacon and foccacia, so no-brainer there. What surprised me was the basil brioche - how buttery and aromatic it was!

As always, I did lots of homework before choosing Melisse. I knew in addition to their normal menus, they were also offering a 10-course 10th anniversary menu. It was a much better deal than a la carte, or their other tasting menus. (That is the bargain-shopper me talking, if one can be thrifty while dining at Melisse.) So before arriving, I already got both F and L onboard.

Our first amuse bouche was the duo of grape and goat cheese. One was a compote grape filled with goat cheese, dusted with pistachios, served on a spoon. The molten goat cheese was very mild. Though the concept and presentation were intriguing, the cheese was a bit too mild, the taste was a little underwhelming. The other was a red grape rolled in goat cheese and pistachios. I preferred the contrast with the more pronounced goat cheese. The second amuse bouche was scallop sashimi in lemongrass aioli. It was a subtle mingling of flavors - the sauce enhanced the sweetness of the fresh and silky scallop, while its bitterness completely vanished.

The infamous egg caviar opened the curtain to our culinary saga. The still-running slow-poached egg yolk sat at the bottom of an egg shell, topped with lemon creme fraiche and a dollop of caviar and chive. With each spoonful, the yolk mixed with the creme fraiche, studded with the caviar, it was simple yet luxuriously unforgettable.

The duo of hamachi and tuna tartare was next. The hamachi slices rested on small mounds of tuna tartare, with celery, Meyer lemon and black truffles, drizzled with yuzu sauce. It's like sushi, but all fish and no carb!

The soup course was a white and purple asparagus cream soup. The truffle mousse quenelle perched on top of crispy purple asparagus roulade, swimming in the super smooth, exquisitely delightful white asparagus veloute. Trust me, you wouldn't want to miss a single drop of this.

Then came my favorite food in this whole wide world - foie gras! (My last meal would definitely include foie gras. This is one thing I couldn't and wouldn't possibly give up, even for the fear of having heart attacks. However, foie gras made improperly is indubitably a waste.) The foie gras was seared to perfection, placed on a piece of pain d'epice. A small amount of sea salt, banyuls reduction, and a Sequoia cherry decorated the plate, so the diner could season this delicacy according to personal preference. Not sure why, but the toast under the foie gras is often difficult to cut. I didn't really care for it. Still, the foie gras was so titillating without tasting greasy. Mmm, I would have gone into a food coma if I didn't know more were coming.

The pasta course was a fresh house made Cappelini in lobster Bolognese sauce, topped with truffle froth. This is "royal" comfort food. It looks so simple, yet the flavor is so complicated.

The fish of the day was kinmedai, or alfonsino, a "golden eye" sea bream. It sat in curry emulsion, accompanied by courgette roulade, and wild spinach puree. None of these made much an impression, I'm sure I could do without. But the fish was fantastic! The skin was crispy, the fish could melt in your mouth.

We were all getting very full when the meat course came, but none of us could resist a good piece (or 2) of beef. The prime rib was cooked to just pink, but I preferred the potato and short rib pave. It looked like a juicy piece of pork belly, and it tasted just as succulent. The porchini daube was flawless. If a mushroom could choose, I'm sure everyone of them would like to end up in a daube. Not being a fan of fava bean, I found the fava bean puree unnecessary.

The cheese course came in the form of a tart. The baked reblochon would probably make some cheese lover ecstatic. But my taste buds are very juvenile, when it comes to cheese, to truly appreciate this.

I was quite relieved when the desserts came. I would be devastated if we had another meat course, and I couldn't enjoy the dessert as the result of that. But anyhow, things worked out well. The chocolate and caramel fondant was wonderfully creamy and airy. I'd never even heard of chocolate sorbet, so it was fascinating.

The strawberry-rhubarb vanilla yogurt was the perfect ending to the memorable meal. The tart strawberry rhubarb sorbet together with the compote atop the creamy vanilla yogurt, the flavors tingled on my tongue and cleansed palate at the same time.

The mignardises included vanilla canelés, chocolate cookies, sugar cookies and cherries. These weren't all that special, the canelés were a bit dry. But who could complain when we've already had such a splendid meal.

Melisse
1104 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 395-0881

Girls Weekend

People always say that when they were little they wanted to grow up quickly, I never felt that way. At every stage of my life, I always wished I were younger and missed the times in the past. As content as I am with my life, I often remember the fun time in college. I made a lot of friends back then, including my best friends F and L. Couple of years ago, we decided that we’d have a girls’ weekend every year, since we live at different places and can no longer hang out very often. So far, we’ve only gone to places where one of us resides, like Seattle or Boston. This year, it’s LA.

While we enjoyed each other’s company and conversation, we feasted on all kinds of edible commodities. (You know it wouldn’t be one of my trips without lots of food.) We brunched at Urth Caffe in West Hollywood (make sure you get their bread pudding if you ever stop by, yummmmm. =) and Huckleberry (their bread pudding is good too, the salted caramel square was sinfully rich - almost too much, but the acclaimed maple bacon biscuit was too dry and dense for me, and the duck hash didn’t wow me either), reveled in macarons from Paulette (Don't you wish you were us? ;) and cocktailed at Cache Restaurant and J Restaurant and Lounge with F’s friends.

We also headed out to Oxnard for California Strawberry Festival. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t as nice as it could be. But we still devoured lots of fair food, like chicken skewer (it was HUGE!), garlic fries, strawberry shortcake, etc. Don’t you always feel like a little kid when you go to fairs? F and L both came back loaded with candles. Of course, there was some Korean BBQ and Chinese food since L couldn’t have any in SC. I was surprised to find Beijing/Northern style tofu flower on the menu of Yung Ho Restaurant in San Gabriel. This is one dish I had for breakfast growing up, and I had never found it in a restaurant in the States before. It was pretty decent. What a find!

LA is a place studded with great restaurants, some even Michelin-starred . So without a doubt, I made a reservation at one of these establishments. But you will have read my next post to see where we went. =)

Doesn’t our trip sound like it’s all about food? Like that’s all I care about. Well, heehee, that is true. But it’s not the ONLY thing I care about. We had a great time painting the town - shopping and watching movies, and just hang out. Well, so long, LA. I can’t wait for thel next girls’ weekend.

Bin on the Lake

We celebrated our anniversary over the weekend. I can't believe it's been 7 years already! Time really flies (whether you are having fun or not ;). Last time we went to the restaurant in the Woodmark hotel, it was still called Waters. (I know! It's been awhile! Well, when you have kids, especially the ones with food allergies, you can't go out as much as you used to, or as much as you'd like.) Anyways, we didn't know what to expect of Bin on the Lake, which was probably a good start since I tend to have my expectations way high, and set myself up to be disappointed. (I wasn't even impressed with French Laundry! After trying to get reservations for 3 years, you can imagine my anticipation.)

I'm sure all you parents out there know that the kids love to fill up on bread. So I always pay special attention to these yeast creations. At Bin on the Lake, we were served potato rolls and sourdough. The sourdoughs, with sesame, poppy seeds, and fennel seeds, were airy and chewy. But I prefer the fluffy potato rolls.

I got the sea bass, and hubby had the duck. My sea bass was perfectly tender and moist with a golden crust, topped with some micro greens, sitting on a bed of spinach atop one GIANT celery root ravioli the size of a toast. It sat in a pool of carrot butter sauce, that might not be the most appealing to look at, but was totally delicious! I didn't really care for the celery root ravioli. But the rest of the dish, mmmmmm, was mouthwateringly delightful. Hubby's duck, equally titillating, was cooked to just slightly pink, fanned out on coco nib and tart cherry farro, accompanied by a squash and red pepper crépinette. The duck with a little smoked duck demi was, without question, perfect. However, what surprised me was the farro. It's a little embarrassing, but I have to admit that I'd never had farro before, especially this combination with coco and cherry. It was eye-opening. The kids were supposed to share a plate of Mini Beach Burgers, but they preferred our sea bass and duck much more. Who could blame them! The duck disappeared so quickly that the waitress, being the super affable woman she is, comped us a whole extra plate of duck with arugula salad with craisin, and candied walnut in cranberry vinaigrette. The meaty, savory duck, bitter arugula and sweet cranberry make this a perfect entree salad. The duck, of course, was devoured within minutes AGAIN.

Now, I knew hubby loved duck. Back in 2008, I took him to Beijing for the Olympics. The most famous dish from Beijing has got to be the Peking duck. (I might be biased, but the roasted Cantonese style ducks you get at Chinese restaurants don't even come close.) So, without hesitation, we went for some duck the day we arrived. It was love at first bite for him, he was totally hooked. After that, we went back every other day. Towards the end, the waiter would greet us with "you again". =) My uncle even joked that hubby would start quacking like a duck if we stayed for another month! What I didn't know was that hubby thought that he wouldn't order ducks anymore in the States. (You have to admit the duck breast has a gamy taste in most restaurants.) However, after those two plates of duck, he changed his mind - he would always order duck at Bin on the Lake from now on. I also didn't know that my kids love duck so much. It's time to take them to Beijing. ;)

We enjoyed our dinner with a bottle of Erotica Riesling. Even though it wasn't a romantic candlelight dinner with just the two of us. It was still pretty close to a perfect dinner.

Bin on the Lake
1270 Carillon Pt, Kirkland, WA 98033
(425) 803-5595