I got hold of tonight's menu of a local teaching restaurant. They were looking to fill 15 covers at 6pm at very short notice because some trainees were being assessed that night. On offer was a four-course gourmet meal (five if you count the coffee). OH and I were celebrating so I quickly booked a table for two and persuaded OH to come along for a treat.
Both our days had been gruelling. In my case, we had the auditors in at work, which makes everyone quite tense and meeting those various last-minute demands was tough and time-consuming. OH was waiting for the new load of firewood to punch its way through the snow -- yes, we have run out of what we thought was 7 cbm and had to top up. So we were both quite tired by evening.
However, the food at the restaurant was a real pick-me-up. We were offered each a choice of three different canapés, bruschetta with a little mozzarella, a small Thai fishcake and a mini flaky pastry with some sort of leeky filling, a thimbleful at the most, with some parmesan shavings, and presented with young pea seedlings as an alternative to watercress.
This was followed by two delicious starters: pork belly for OH and a prawn and avocado cocktail for me. The main courses were 2 rolls of lemon sole on ratatouille and with a white raisin sauce for me -- sooo nice -- and beef bourguignon with mashed potato and julienne carrots and Savoy cabbage for OH. Alongside this, OH had a nice merlot and I had a very drinkable pinot grigio.
I was slightly luckier with my dessert, a citrus tart with cointreau-infused orange sorbet, than OH, whose pecan meringue with poached pears on top had pears that were a bit hard and bouncy, but the taste was just lovely. I was particularly pleased with the portion-sizing: good that they teach the new kids not to overload people's plates so that it is actually possible for a normal-sized stomach to get through a multi-course meal and feel pleasantly sated but not stuffed.
So, a lovely culinary surprise -- not something we expected when we started our respective days this morning! Always good to be on the look-out.
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