Labyrinth Beads: The French Laundry

Last night was amazing. It's the next morning and I'm still full. Everything was excellent and tasted so good. This is a picture of the vegetarian tasting menu, which we did not have. I took the picture because across the top it says Happy 25th Anniversary Ellen and Robert.

Course number one was caviar. I had the oysters and pearls and Robert had the Ossetra reuben. I tasted both and I preferred the oysters and pearls. It was warm and the tapioca and caviar burst with flavor in your mouth. I love oysters and these were especially delicious.

The next course was salad or pasta. I took the Salad of Hawaiian Hearts of Peach Palm. The dish had a lot of contrast between sweet and acidity. The sweet peach was delicious.

And Robert took the Hand-cut Buckwheat Tagliatelle with Ris de Veau and Black Truffle. I tasted this and it was earthy and warming. The picture is basically a pile of shaved black truffles. They brought out the truffle lock box and let us look at them and smell them before they shaved one onto the plate.

The next two courses were fish. The first fish was Pacific Sablefish otherwise known as Black Cod. It was sweet and perfectly cooked to a medium rare. Pickled vegetables balanced the dish with some acidity. There was even a small beet for Robert. He enjoyed it.
I know my parents raised me right but I am still a bumpkin when it comes to fish knives, especially when there is more than one at a time. They presented us with the regular kind of fish knife but also a flattened spoon shaped one. It was confusing. I don't know if I used them properly, but whatever.

The next fish course was fricasee of lobster claw, poached in butter. I hate to say it but although the lobster was delicious and had a nice crunch on the outside, I remain a lobster purist.

The next course was rabbit wrapped in bacon. This was sublime and one of my favorite dishes of the evening.

The second meat course was a choice of lamb or American Wagyu beef. I took the lamb and Robert had the beef. The lamb was delicious but the beef was absolutely mind-blowing. I've never tasted anything close to its deliciousness before. It was aged 100 days.

Cheese course. By now we have drunk 2 half-bottles of wine and I'm smashed.

We had an Austrian TBA for dessert wine. It was sweet but not too heavy. So good. This picture is of a huckleberry custard that I forgot to photograph before I started eating, so there are bites taken out. I was smashed.