The twin towers

After our misadventures last week, the gang needed another outing with V while he was still in town. Some people seemed stuck on the idea of going somewhere with the existence of a "Peter menu", so when I suggested Petrus and commented that this would be one of those places with such a menu, the gang overwhelmingly voted yes. Another vote of confidence came from Monsieur Jamin, who chose to join us for this dinner while skipping the last one.

So I pinged Uwe and told him that the "Peter menu" has been requested, and that he should "bring it". I think he got the message... I did tell him, though, that we would be drinking more reds than whites tonight.

This has to be the first time I'm getting tableside butter service here. We had three types of butter: plain, seaweed, and black truffle.

So they took smaller chunks out of the big piles of butter, and molded them for individual service. Served with grissini baguettes. Gotta say that while all three were nice, the butter made with fresh black truffles was really something.

The Candidate later noted that she didn't see the same butter service being provided to other tables around us...

We then got three little tarts to start:

Beef tartare with caviar - the flavors from the caviar was, naturally, fairly strong, but the finely chopped chives also announced their presence.

Fennel panna cotta with salmon - lots of lemon here providing plenty of acidity.

Hamachi tartare with yuzukosho - slightly brûlée on top, with salmon roe and fennel flowers. The yuzukosho (柚子胡椒) flavors were pretty strong and obvious, while the fennel flowers also packed a punch with their fragrance.

Foie gras : Georges Bruck / Saint Honoré / truffle - a very pretty saint-honoré, and very impressive in terms of size!

At the bottom we have flaky puff pastry, along with a layer of diced apple and pear, then foie gras terrine with diced black truffle in the middle, topped off with a layer of foie gras panna cotta. A caramelized choux is served on the side. This was pretty rich, but wonderfully satisfying and perfect for the winter.

Hokkaido scallop : butter milk / apple / caviar - the thin slices of scallop came with julienned green apple which provided a refreshing dose of fruity acidity, topped with a rich sauce of apple reduction and buttermilk. Some crunchy hazelnuts came along for the ride.

Japanese potato : Hokkaido / truffle / chicken jus - apparently the potato was aged for 180 days. Served with shavings of black truffle on top, some truffled jus, and egg yolk reduction.

The kitchen layered wafer-thin slices of black truffle between thin slices of potato. Real decadent. Kinda like an extreme version of Hasselback potatoes, as the outside was still very crispy.

So we were presented with this tubular croissant, and this was cut into slices tableside.

Lobster : Boston / Thermidor / croissant - so... not exactly a Wellington, but the lobster was baked en croûte inside the crispy pastry. We've got lobster on the side along with some button mushroom slices. Pretty delicious.

Next we were shown this small little turbot as our next course.

French turbot : scallop / leek / mussel - there was mousse made of scallop and mussel (and leeks, I presume) binding two pieces of turbot together, with bouillabaisse, fennel mousse, potato, tomato, mussel, and turbot skirt on the side. Pretty nice, but I chose not to finish the dish since I knew we had more food coming.

We finally got to our main course!

French baby lamb : saddle and langoustine / leg / broth - this was a really, really beautiful dish... both in terms of presentation as well as the flavors. Served with lamb jus, Jerusalem artichoke purée, and langoustine cappuccino.

The loin was stuffed with some Norwegian langoustine. Very nice bouncy texture, with very nice fatty, lamby flavors.

The slow-cooked lamb shoulder was really, really tender.

On the side we had a lamb broth with pearl barley and carrots, along with fennel flowers. This was warm and comforting.

I knew Uwe would be killing us with a mountain of desserts, but I didn't think he'd send the "seafood tower" again...

Of course, these weren't real seafood. We've got the lemon made of sponge cake, hazelnut and chocolate lobster claw, fufu cake langoustine tail, fruits like watermelon and pineapple, passion fruit and mango octopus, Banoffee pie oyster, crème brûlée in the scallop shell.

We've got stones made of rum raisin ice cream, and langoustine claw made of panna cotta.

Black forest cake - instead of tiramisu like last time, we've got black forest cake inside the big caviar tin. The "caviar" this time was spherification of cherry jelly. I really liked this.

Wine selection is always interesting with this crowd. No theme for tonight, though...

Chavost Eurêka!, dégorgée décembre 2021 - very fragrant and lovely floral notes... or was that the hotel perfume? Some minerality on the nose. Pretty elegant.

2010 Roulot Meursault Meix Chavaux - aired for just under 2 hours prior to serving. Big nose of toast, really flinty. Good acidity here. Nice and buttery after about 2 hours, and after 3½ hours there was some vanilla oak on the nose.

1972 Daniel Rion Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Chaumes - popped and served. Nose of leather, a little barnyard, brett, eucalyptus, a little prunes. Very nice on the palate, and while it was elegant the wine was not too light. After 30 minutes some black olives emerged.

1970 Lafleur - unfortunately kinda over-aerated. Bretty, a little medicinal, leather, smoke, prunes. I could smell the acidity.

1983 August Clape Cornas, en magnum - opened and not decanted just 1 hour before serving. This was sooooo beautiful, sooooo fragrant, with lots of bacon fat, smoke, grilled meats, some leather, and plums. Suddenly there was a whiff of dusty chalk but thankfully this faded. Plateaued about 1½ hours after opening, but remained lovely with lots of eucalyptus. Some 3 hours after opening there were some black olives, with less sweet fruit and more smoke.

This was, indeed, VIP treatment. The gang seemed pretty happy, especially a certain someone who took a certain leftover dessert home. Once again I am grateful for Uwe spoiling me.