Pin It
We're back at
La Marine tonight. When I first thought about joining this excursion, I didn't quite understand when I was told that Geruhage was coming for 2 dinners. Well, Alexandre Couillon promised to cook him (and us) a different menu for the second night, so I was very curious what would be in store for us tonight.
Our table tonight was all the way in the back of the restaurant facing the garden, which afforded us some natural light while the sun was still out.
The starters we had were mostly the same as last night:
"Eau de tomate", infusion aux feuilles de tagète - once again, we start with this refreshing drink that combines acidity, umami, and sweetness.
Ventrèche de thon - cured with salt and sugar, then lightly seared on the outside. So... basically like Japanese
tataki (たたき)... where it's still raw inside. Very nice.
"Les algues", chantilly de coquillages, vinaigre de lichen
"Le fenouil", une crudité, rouget, éclats de citron brulé - OK... so I get to have the French
kueh pie tee again... And I do think of it as such, because just like in Peranakan cooking, the crunchy shell is stuffed with a mix of seafood and vegetables.
"l'huitre noire Erika", nacre de sucre -
alors, the signature oyster again.
Today, though, I got the discs of sugar that I didn't see yesterday.
Le maquereau, aubergine et fleur de topinambour - the fish came with a sweet and sour eggplant as well as a deep-fried sunchoke flower. The flower would remind some of us of butterbud bur (蕗の薹), which are deep-fried as tempura in Japan.
The mackerel skin had been coated with a seaweed and egg yolk paste and left for a few hours, before being cooked on barbecue to deliver a crispy skin that was nice and smoky.
Le tourteau, courge et herbes potagères - plated with herbs from the garden, and a purée of
kabocha (南瓜) squash as well as a jelly made with broth from the brown crab shell. There was also some pine oil and vinegar here, which made sense with crab.
The caviar sitting on the brown crab meat was the Dauricus from Kaviari.
Seaweed brioche - we get to have this again... and it's so, soooo fragrant and buttery. Of course, the seaweed powder makes all the difference.
L'oignon, un beurre lacto fermenté - the onion came with a lacto-fermantation sauce made with the onion, accented with some perilla vinegar. The sauce definitely had enough acidity to cut through the creaminess.
The onion was actually stuffed with onion compote, which was nice and caramelized. This was very, very good. There was also a little grape that looked really cute and tasted very sweet.
L'huître, jus d'oignon - this looks like cabbage surrounded by the same foamy onion sauce we just had... except it was different, a little more caramelized and pretty nice. The foam on top was made by blending oyster water with butter.
Under the cabbage sat an oyster waiting to be revealed. The oyster itself was just lightly-cooked and not briny, while the trim was cooked through and chewy. For someone who doesn't care for fully-cooked oysters, this one was very pleasant.
Le mérou, maïs - thanks to climate change and the warming of the ocean, groupers can now be found in the waters around the island as their habitat expands towards the north. This one was dry-aged for 3 days. The sauce was made with corn husk and
fromage blanc and the dish was topped with diced corn from the garden.
The grouper came thick cut and was still very tender, but of course this wasn't comparable to how tender Cantonese steamed fish would be... The skin was nice, but the flavors of the corn husk sauce was too vegetal for my liking.
Le homard, beurre à la reine des prés - the lobster was simply grilled on the shell, and served with salicornia, sea spinach, cabbage, and a lobster sauce with meadowsweet.
This... was pretty fucking good. And that sauce was damn good. I love it when seafood comes and shows its purest flavors.
So... someone (who shall remain unnamed) enjoyed their breakfast so much this morning that they wanted to have some more breakfast at dinner time. A request was made for the smoked fish, ham, and cheese served for the hotel breakfast to be brought to our dinner table, ostensibly so that Monsieur Croissant and I could have a taste. WELL! We were not expecting plates of this size...
Smoked mullet
Un petit jambon...
...et un petit fromage... I didn't check to see what kind of cheese this was, but I tasted some acidity here.
Of course, I would never miss an opportunity to make myself some
jambon beurre!
La laitue de mer, sorbet 'fouet des sorcières' et sarrasin - OH YES! I get to have this amazing dessert AGAIN! Just a day after it had stunned me completely with its magical combination of umami, acidity, and sweetness. Of course, tasting it the second time didn't quite have the same impact, but I still loved it.
The crunchy buckwheat popcorn and the sea lettuce crisp were really nice.
Raisins, verjus et lait fermenté - a
quenelle of fermented milk ice cream sat on
kakigori (かき氷) made with grapes,
verjus, and verbena from the garden.
DAYAM! That
verjus was just too fucking acidic... and needed to be neutralized by the milky ice cream.
Come to think of it, the last time I was served
verjus that made me wince was also at a meal with Geruhage...
at a different place with 3 macarons. In that instance, it was so bad I didn't finish the dish.
Finally, we have the
mignardises once more:
Marshmallow tape
Bergamot sorbet - much happier seeing this after the
verjus kakigori...
Matcha and white chocholate macaron, beetroot and anise jelly
Seaweed meringue and seaweed and pistachio tartlet
I am usually a cheapskate when it comes to ordering wine at a restaurant, but I received some really good news this afternoon so I wanted to pick out a nice bottle to splurge in a small way... even if it meant committing infanticide...
2021 Stephane Ogier Condrieu Les Vieilles Vignes de Jacques Vernay - the nose was really fragrant and floral with lots of lychee and rose. Not surprisingly this was very ripe on the palate.
2020 Prieuré Roch Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots - started drinking around 1 hour after opening, and initially this still wasn't open. This got better after 10 minutes in the glass, and the nose was pretty powerful with dried flower petals and eucalyptus. It got leaner on the palate more than 1½ hours after opening, getting more grippy with higher acidity. I guess it was just still too young and not ready.
I'm glad I agreed to come for a second dinner, because Alexandre managed to show us a different side. The cooking tonight came with lighter sauces and the flavors were cleaner, more pure... No garum or collagen cream tonight, and the Asian side of me appreciated this more.
Time to grab some water and hit the sack. We have an early morning tomorrow...
No comments:
Post a Comment