No baseball bat tonight

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One is meant to give a gift made of wood to one's spouse on the fifth wedding anniversary. I only remembered about the tradition of anniversary gifts some time this morning, and briefly contemplated trying to buy a small, wooden mallet as a joke to give to Foursheets. When I told her about it later in the day, she scoffed at the idea of a mallet and suggested that I get her a baseball bat instead, since it's much harder and would do much more damage thanks to its mass. Well... I'm glad there isn't one around the house.

My day actually started with me singing the Bee Gees' hit Stayin' Alive - my anthem for having survived another year of marriage. Besides a little celebratory dance with me tryin' a little move from Tony Manero, the main celebration would be dinner at Caprice. It was, in fact, where we exchanged our vows and got married... and Hairy Legs had very kindly moved our booking to the Chef's Table - the actual place where it all happened 5 years ago.

Hairy Legs was supposed to join us for dinner, but unfortunately got pulled due to another engagement. He did manage to stick around to have a little bit of wine with us, so we did manage to spend some time together.

There's always the Caprice boîte à bijoux to start us off:

[Tomato and ]Piquillo essence - have they switched to Comté from Parmesan, as introduced tonight?

Lobster and wasabi tartlet - with crustacean gel in the center, together with lemon gel and basil gel all around. A small and tasty bite.

Crispy roll with onions and anchovies - this has always been really, really good. That sweetness from the onions and the crispy feuille de brick make me wanna have another one.

Cured Japanese sea bream, shellfish cream, calamansi dressing - a very light and refreshing first course, as the acidity from calamansi and lemon gel lend a fruity touch to the delicate flavors of the fish.

On top of the Kaviari Kristal caviar and the cream made with shrimp heads, crème fraîche, and Cognac was a tiny, tiny amount of gold foil that the ever generous Hairy Legs decided to put on my (and only my) dish. OK, I know gold is expensive and has just recently hit a historical high and broke the USD 4,000 an ounce level, so I suppose Hairy Legs needs to watch his food cost...

Textures de champignon matsutake, café et citron sudachi, consommé de canard - I wish Hairy Legs had given me an extra 10 seconds for me to take a picture before he poured the duck consommé into the bowl, but oh well... We've got big slices of matsutake (松茸) on top, with a sprinkle of coffee and yuzu as well as some mint leaves and mint oil.

The consommé was tasty but slightly too salty for my taste. The matsutake was a lot more fragrant than I had expected, and the mint oil complemented it nicely. This dish really worked well with our Ygrec.

Crabe royale d'Alaska, girolles et sauce vin jaune, truffe blanche - Hairy Legs has created quite a few fantatic dishes featuring king crab over the years, and we've got the latest iteration here... Again, I wasn't given time to take a proper picture before Hairy Legs came with the white truffle...

This was REALLY FUCKING BEAUTIFUL! Yes, the crab was sweet and delicious as one would expect, but that vin jaune sauce was just perfect with the crab. The girolles brought their own fragrance, highlighted by a few leaves of tarragon. Topping it all off with the white truffle and one's mouth is left with an incredible aroma that lingers on. This may be an old expression, but can I say "vachement super!"

Pêche ⟪petit bateau⟫ avec calisson piquillos et mangue, sauce safran - an old favorite here, as we have the red mullet from Brittany served on top of shellfish stuffing. I don't think I'd ever get tired of feeling how smooth the fish is against my tongue or the roof of my mouth. And that saffron sauce from the King of Sauce... so sweet and rich.

The calisson is composed of a slice of mango on top of flan made with piquillos. I was advised to take both elements together with some of the herbs like baby coriander, as they help neutralize the bitterness from the peppers.

Pigeon de Bretagne rôti, millefeuille de coing et céleri, sauce cacao - the pigeon came with some Maya spice on the skin, and we've got a quenelle of quince cooked with lemon and sugar, as well as cacao-infused pigeon jus.

The pigeon came as a very thick cut, and served fairly rosé to deliver meat that was very bouncy. The seasoning was very light, and the gamey flavors - which were among the strongest I have tasted - really took center stage.

The millefeuille of quince and celeriac also came with feuille de brick.

Sélection de fromages affinés - we would never dream of passing up the cheese selection.

Brillat-Savarin - always, always happy to have my "savory ice cream".

Reblochon - very nutty and nice.

Mimolette - love how sharp and punchy this is.

Comté, 36 mois

Langres

Our pre-dessert came with yogurt mousse at the bottom with candied lemon peel, and some honey oats for crunch. There was a lime and vanilla sorbet on top of the pistachio tuile, with a nice dose of acidity to cleanse our palates.

Poor Astoria has been hit hard with illness, so Patissier d'Artagnan was running the pastry station...

Soufflé à la amande et glace vanille

This was so nice together.

An anniversary naturally calls for wines from the anniversary vintage, and tonight I brought two bottles.

2020 Ygrec de Yquem - nose of lemon citrus, honey, with very good acidity to balance the small amount of ripeness on the palate. I could definitely smell the sauvignon blanc in the blend.

2020 Angelus - drank about 2 hours after decanting. Definitely still a very young and vibrant wine. Very ripe and a little jammy, with prominent notes of forest and potpourri, along with vanilla and mint on the nose. Still needs time to develop, but enjoyable now.

2014 Yauem, en imperial - lots of polyurethane and saffron, as well as orange and acetone. Soooo lovely and viscous on the palate.

2020 DRC Corton-Charlemagne - good acidity as well as good ripeness, with a little honey on the nose and a bit of polyurethane. This did not smell like a white Burg at all, with none of the buttery and oaky profile. After a little more time, the toasty notes finally came out, along with some flint. When the wine got warmer in the glass, the ripeness became more obvious.

1989 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Clos Windsbuhl Sélection de Grains Nobles - nose of saffron, honey, marmalade, and lovely nutty notes.

As Hairy Legs knows about our anniversary, he insisted on treating us for dinner tonight. I suppose that, under these circumstances, I could forgive him for his stinginess when it comes to gold. As always, we are grateful to Suveg, Victor, Wing, Floriane, and the Caprice team for taking really good care of us. Caprice is and will always remain a special place in our hearts.