Family in the 'hood

A mere 3 hours after my big, 9-course lunch, I found myself seated at the same table as My Favorite Cousin at Neighborhood. Her parents have come into town for a few days on their way to spend some time in Taipei, and she wanted to take them out to dinner. Knowing my aunt's bird-like appetite and accounting for the fact that Foursheets and I would still be full from lunch, I asked My Favorite Cousin not to pre-order anything. In fact, I didn't tell The Man in White T-shirt that I was coming... because the last thing we needed was extra dishes...

Boiled artichoke / liver mousse / truffle - not surprising that My Favorite Cousin asked for this given her fondness for artichokes. Always happy to have chicken liver mousse to go along.

Grilled piparra pepper / Hokkaido salt cod - the first pepper I picked was pretty spicy! The others were more manageable but there really was a big variation in terms of the heat.

The Man in White T-shirt walked in and did a double take when he saw me. So now the jig is up...

Sea snails - the first of the dishes that the boss decided we should have. These were much smaller than the ones I saw him prep later for other tables...

Grilled local baby squid - always a crowd favorite, and My Favorite Cousin was really happy. Of course, we had completely forgotten about my uncle's gout condition...

Always happy to put these on bread...

Bone marrow / potato / caviar - another staple on the menu that warrants ordering.

Another dish that's more delicious on bread. Love having the melted richness get soaked up by the bread. So delicious.

Buffalo wings / Roquefort salad - another dish that the boss decided we should have. Always happy to have chicken wings and have the "Chicken Wing Beat" pop into my head again...

White asparagus / morels / trotter - these spears were pretty damn big! It's wonderful they came with young sugarsnap peas and a couple of sunny side up eggs.

The morels were stuffed with diced pig trotters, which is always fantastic! So happy!

Brown-marbled grouper head - Shirley had recommended this to My Favorite Cousin, and given how much my aunt likes fish heads, obviously we took it.

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Thankfully The Man in White T-shirt offered to disassemble it for us, because I'm not sure we would have done it properly.

It was sent back into the kitchen and came back as a paella. Unfortunately they also roasted it a little more, and the skin and other bits got too chewy for the elderly folks.

Tarte tatin - nice to see it back on the menu. Very tasty.

Mille-feuille

Canelés

I'm glad My Favorite Cousin brought a bottle of bubbly, because I had just the perfect wine for this crowd...

Krug Grande Cuvée, 168éme édition, ID 319031 - nice and toasty nose as expected. Good acidity balance on the palate, and obviously another couple of years' of aging meant the wine developed some maturity, so the palate got a little softer and rounder.

2010 Lucia, en magnum - started drinking about 1½ hours after double-decanting. Still got the fruit on the nose, along with minty, woodsy, and cedar notes. Drinking well.

Very grateful to The Kitchen NaziMan in White T-shirt for letting us get away with a small menu, as we really did not have the appetite tonight.