Greg took me to The French Laundry for my birthday :D The French Laundry is a 3 Michelin star restaurant in Yountville (which is in the Napa Valley), that has won numerous awards. You guys know how much I appreciate good food, and it was a spectacular experience. And yes, I was a total dork taking pictures of all of the food (I couldn't resist).
Check out what they printed on the top of our menus:
It was a fixed course menu with 9 courses. The chef prepared vegan and fish options for me, while Greg had their meat selection. The restaurant maintains a garden where they get most of their vegetables, so it was all very fresh.
I started with 2 small bites - the one in the spoon was avocado, and the other one was potato. The avocado was especially delicious, it had a lingering aftertaste.
This was a caviar and oyster dish Greg had.
And this was a carrot soup for me. The carrots all came from their garden, and it had ground up peanut and banana in it. I could have eaten much more of this.
The next dish I forgot to take a picture of, but it had salsify in it, which is a root that has so much iron in it you have to peel it underwater and cook it in a vacuum because it oxidizes almost immediately when it is in contact with the air. It was delicious, and I had no idea what I was eating because it didn't taste like anything I've had before.
An assortment of their vegetables on top of a marmalade.
A squash dish with black truffle on top.
A salad with roasted cauliflower, raisins, cashews, and heart of palm. The cashews was soft, like they had been cooked.
Greg's dish - chicken breast, chicken thigh, and potato.
Sea bass with avocado, cara cara oranges, and nuts.
This was a special meat dish for Greg. The beef came from a farm that only provides for the French Laundry. It came with a turnip, broccolini from their garden, and rice.
Hearts of palm and cara cara oranges.
Greg's dish had hazelnuts, cheesecake, cherries, and black winter truffle .
And then we had the palette clearing courses for desert. I had a grapefruit sorbet on top of pistachios:
Greg had a grapefruit float.
My desert was incredible. Since the deserts on the menu included cream and/or eggs, it had to be made special for me. It had a chocolate cake made with whole wheat flour, bananas, soy ice cream, and those little orange squares were tiny explosions of orange that went with the chocolate. I had a huge smile on my face when I finished this.
Greg's desert had chocolate ice cream on top of a peanut naugatine, with popcorn cream on top (yes that's right, popcorn cream).
Then there was chocolates. These were made in house and were similar to Elbow chocolates. My vegan chocolates were very rich.
Greg had an assortment.
And then there were more deserts, most of which Greg was left to eat.
Here is Greg outside after the meal, all suited up.
We drove around Yountville for a bit after the meal to take in the green and wineries. Mom, I remember you said Stags Leap was your favorite wine, so I thought you would appreciate this:
