barf.
i just have to learn to not overindulge so much when dining in my favorite restaurant!
we took our house-sitter to cafe juanita (www.cafejuanita.com) for dinner tonight for taking care of house and the girls while we were in hawai'i. it was an early reservation, but even so dinner lasted 3 hours give or take a few.
we started with aperitivi:
Blood Orange Negroni with Roasted Ennis Hazelnuts - mine had a splash of cointrou to take the slightly bitter edge off
appys consisted of:
Seared Foie Gras with Blood Orange Confit, Candied Ginger and Vin Santo
Salt Cod Fritti with Caper Maionese
baked cippolini with wagyu and parmesan(?) cheese sauce
soup:
matt and kathy had while i just tasted, trying to conserve appetite...
zoupa della sera - which today was a roman strachiatelli (ok, i've no idea how that's spelled) - excellent, as always!
primi:
i had the special Guinea Fowl with Farro, Black Kale and Hazelnut Manderinquat Aigrelette - OMG it was so good!
and matt had the special yellowtail which was fillets, seared, had a puree of white truffle and something.... he says it was delicious.
dolce:
pralus chocolate souffle, of course! and coffee
the gelatto flavor of the day was roasted arborio rice. ROASTED ARBORIO RICE!!!! the stuff you make risotto out of! when Jim told us this we all kind of made a face like 'you got to be kidding!' i asked if we could get a little sample taste of it and he said yes. he brought a little scoop (like a melon ball size) of it with 3 spoons. and you know, it works! there was a taste, a little stronger than 'a hint of' coffee, as well as the crispy bits of rice, but it was quite good!
i guess that's a perk you get when the staff knows you.
in fact we noticed a couple of the wait staff who haven't been there as long as we've actually been going said hello as they walked past us tonight. and jim didn't take our entree order until after our appy, which was a first, although definitly not out of line. wed isn't their most busy night, so they can probably afford to have a few tables only turn once instead of twice. sara of course came by and chated a couple times, asked how our trip to hawai'i was, and commented that we looked pretty tanned.
chef holly was there tonight. she's probably been there on other nights when we've attended but we just didn't pay attention - however she's not usually there on wednesdays. but her sous chef was sick so she had to step in, right? her son oliver was there, too. he was so cute! and so well behaved for being 'stuck at mom's work for the night'! he was hanging out i the kitchen, helping mom and some of the staff. he even sat 1 couple! (ok, not sure if that was an accident or he really knew what he was doing... he is only 6 or 7). but we asked sara if chef had a few minutes we'd love to meet her in person, seeing as we go there all the time and we have exchanged a couple emails about 1 particular recipe matt would like to prepare. (looking for the wild boar to purchase). she seems really nice, we also met her son oliver, and chatted 5 minutes, maybe a little longer, before she went back to the kitchen.
as usual the food was divine, the wine pairing was excellent, and the service beyond reproach.
i ate too much, and am now lolling on the couch, trying not to waddle as i walk, and will probably be in bed asleep before too long...
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