Tonight I stepped foot into a Parisien, no, a global institution as far as fine dining is concerned. Cathy had made the reservation for us at La Tour d'Argent, a place I had been wanting to go for some time and kinda like Mecca. I was pretty excited about the evening, especially since it would be my first meal at a 3-star restaurant.
The interior is quite amazing. We had a table by the window overlooking the Seine and Île Saint-Louis. I was awed.
We wanted to pick a nice bottle of wine, so the wine list was presented. It was like a volume from an encyclopedia... big enough to list the 400,000+ bottles they had. Of course we were able to find a bottle of '82 Ducru-Beaucaillou...
We were given our menus and I noticed that the prices were written with a marker next to the names of the dish. I quickly realized that in old-fashioned France, prices are only for the eyes of men, not ladies. That's another first...
I started with foie gras d'oie des Trois Empereurs, brioche au beurre salé. This was priced at FRF 500, which is quite a princely sum, especially for a starter! My curiosity was piqued, and I waited to see what would arrive in front of me. The waiter laid a plate in front of me with only gelée on the side, and proceeded to reach into a silver bucket with a dinner spoon to deposit three large quenelles of foie gras onto the plate. It was as if he was scooping out ice cream! It was sooo rich, sooo smooth with big chunks of black truffle! Wow!
Cathy and I shared a caneton Marco Polo au poivre vert, which was de rigueur when one visits this restaurant. We received postcards which informed us that our little ducky was no. 856,116.
I had flambée de pêches for dessert. 2 peaches enveloped in blue flames were dropped onto my plate, along with scoops of flaming liqueur. The peaches were completely soaked in alcohol, and were so wonderful! A great way to end a meal.
We ran into Jean-Paul Belmondo on the way out, so Cathy got excited about her celeb run-in. This was truly a memorable evening.
That's a really large collection of wines- but I suppose it's what you expect.
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