If your name is Wendy or Sheila, I will caution you right now. What you're about to read will not make you happy. Stop now and gird your loins. Then make plans to get your butts over here so you can experience this for yourselves! Got that out of my system. So what is it that I am cautioning you about? My luncheon at the Le Restaurant-Ecole de l'Institut de Paul Bocuse a (can't figure out how to do accent grave) Shanghai. I know! How lucky was I! Talk about pearls before swine, and I'm not talking about my menu selections. I tried my best to appreciate the meal to its fullest, rather than merely inhale it.
Our table
My red gloves for a dash of colour
View from the restaurant
Alsace! We must have really been in France!
Wait a minute...what's up with the bamboo?
Right, still in Shanghai, but I did have the opportunity
to inflict my French on the maitre d'.
My partner-in-foodiness, Esther.
My friend Eliza joined us shortly after.
We were the only ones there.
One man did come in later, but that was it.
Busy, busy, busy!
It truly was an open kitchen. No glass at all in between them and us.
Looking down into the lounge section.
I started with a Kir.
Why not? The pleasant student-waiter suggested it, who was I to
deny him the opportunity to learn how to make one?
Our amuse-bouche
It was some sort of mushroomy thing with pork? beef?
I tried to be discerning, Wendy, really I did!
Closer up, maybe you can tell.
My main course
Pave de veau with gratin de Capucin (fancy name for some potato dish)
Eliza's gnocchi and turbot
It's fun to say gnocchi.
Esther's sea bass with oysters and samphire
Samphire? What is that? Glad you asked, it forced me to do the
research and I learnt something, too.
Etymology
Originally "sampiere", a corruption of the French "Saint Pierre" (
Saint Peter), Samphire was named for the patron saint of fishermen because all of the original plants with its name grow in rocky salt-sprayed regions along the sea coast of northern Europe or in its coastal marsh areas. It is sometimes called sea
asparagus or sea
pickle, in Norfolk it is commonly called sampha [sam-fa]
All the plants bearing the name are annuals that begin growing in late autumn and vegetate throughout the winter until the first warm weather arrives. Then the first stems and internodes form, and by mid-spring the plant measures 6 to 8 cm.
Marsh samphire ashes were used to make soap and glass (hence its other old English name, "glasswort.") In the 14th century glassmakers located their workshops near regions where this plant grew, since it was so closely linked to their trade.
Samphires of all kinds have long been eaten in England. The leaves were gathered early in the year and pickled or eaten in salads with oil and vinegar. It is mentioned by Shakespeare in King Lear:
- Half-way down Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade! (Act IV, Scene VI)
This refers to the dangers involved in collecting rock samphire on sea cliffs.
Thank you, Wikipedia.
Man! Do not even dream of challenging us to Trivial Pursuit now!
Now for the best part of any meal, as far as I'm concerned, dessert!
O.K. everybody, suck the drool back into your mouths.
Computer keyboards don't do well when they're damp.
So good!
The complimentary petit fours
Had I known these puppies were coming, I wouldn't have ordered dessert....
as if! You know me!
Three Es!!
As soon as the school restaurant changes their menu,
as they do each season, I'll be back!
