Not your average lobster roll

Pin It

It's Friday night and Foursheets is at home entertaining some friends from out of town. I decided to take the opportunity to have some "me time", and my initial thoughts were to go check out places I haven't been before - especially somewhere more casual. But it IS Friday night, and many of these new joints were seeing good business... which meant no seats for me on short notice.

I messaged the Hairy Chevalier and asked whether I could just sit at Caprice Bar and have two dishes from the kitchen. I also asked if there were new dishes I haven't had a chance to taste - but of course there were... I figured I would end with a dessert from Brownpaperbagged.

I arrived to find, much to my surprise, a mostly-empty bar. Hairy Chevalier had very kindly arranged a table by the window for me, and said he would send me a couple of seasonal dishes. Meanwhile, I had requested the services of Floriane, who had received the Michelin Guide Sommelier Award only yesterday. I asked her to pick out the wines which would pair well with the dishes that the kitchen would be sending my way... whose identities I did not know.

Green asparagus with verbena and citrus cream, spring jelly - we had asparagus gelée with diced asparagus, verbena cream and citrus cream, and of course asparagus spears and slices. So refreshing, so pure. It's just the taste of spring inside one's mouth. As it turns out, I was the guinea pig for the dish. They had been testing it in the kitchen but had not put it on the menu, and since I was around they decided to send it to me. And I happily lapped it up.

The asparagus from Vallée de Loire was paired with a wine from the same region:

2019 Les Poëte Argos - the nose showed mineral and waxy notes, and was a little more oxidized with smokiness. Overall this was really nice and fragrant. This was rounder and riper on the palate, but still had good acidity without being sharp on the long finish.

Blue lobster with white asparagus, culatello, Comté, morels, sauce vin jaune - the white asparagus was so sweet, as was the homard bleu. Balanced with the salt from culatello and Comté, then add the richness of the vin jaune sauce amplified with a bunch of diced black truffle. Very, very nice.

Since they gave me a bread basket on the side, and I've got lobster in front of me, Imma make me some lobster roll! I grabbed a mini baguette, cut into the middle to create some space, and shoved a few bits of lobster, morel, cheese, ham, and a drizzle of the sauce with black truffle. Definitely not your usual lobster roll, but this is definitely my style!

The dish with Comté and sauce vin jaune was paired with a bongwater from Jura:

2018 François Rousset-Martin Perle du Village - showing a very fermented and savory nose, maybe almost at the Chinese fermented beancurd 腐乳 level. Surprisingly this was very clean on the palate. Getting a taste after some lobster made this a little sweet on the palate.

Chestnut tart and chantilly with blue vanilla - underneath the chestnut ice cream and the ring of chestnut chantilly we had some chestnut cream, marron glacé, clementine for some acidity, and hazelnuts. I enjoyed this a couple of times last year, and I'm always amazed at how light this dessert is. I also love me some Mont Blanc, but this polar opposite amazes me.

Initially I thought I would be happy with just one dessert, but after such a "light" one I ran over to the open kitchen and told Brownpaperbagged that I wanted another. Something richer with more ooomph. As it turns out, they were already planning to serve me a second one.

Pear variation with pear and chocolate sauce - another variation of an older dessert. Combination of pear sorbet, chocolate mousse, caramel, chunks of sablé...

For once I did not ask for Yquem nor Toro Albalá, and Floriane brought me an Italian:

2015 Contrà Soarda Breganze Torcolato - for a sweet wine this was certainly on the light side and not too sweet on the palate. Showing some citrus orange, a bit of acetone, manuka honey, orange blossom water. After opening up a little more this showed more complexity on the nose. And after warming up a little this got bigger on the palate, giving a little more sweetness as well as some bitterness on the finish. With a little more time the nose got pretty intensely sweet, with really ripe honeydew melon.

I was very, very happy. Brownpaperbagged even brought me a box of beurre noisette chocolate cookies. Perfect for our overseas visitors who were enjoying their evening with Foursheets at home.

And somehow the bill magically vanished into thin air, never to be found. Very grateful for the kindness of friends, as always.