Happy Noms

Authors: Victor and Monty
Restaurant: Corton
Exec Chef: Paul Liebrandt

Date: July 27, 2012

Monte: I had just sprained my ACL the day before and so I was rather distracted throughout this whole meal by the pain that was shooting up my right leg. However, from what I could pay attention to, this meal was bizarre. I didn’t really know what I was eating half the time, nor could I clearly discern the different flavors. It was all just truly unique food that couldn’t fit a description. I will try my best with a couple of them, but it’s really too unfamiliar for me to truly comment on. I think Liebrandt’s vision was just lost on me at the time.

Food:

Canapé 1:
Onion and sesame meringue.

Canapé 2:
Blackberry wrapped with lardo.

Monte: Creamy porky fruit? Um, sure? It tastes exactly as imagined, except what’s imagined is so disjointed and incoherent.

Canapé 3:
Yuzu-and-saffron mochi with a little sake inside.

Canapé 4:
Cracker with maple cream and broccoli.

Monte: I really liked the texture of these crackers, they’re super foamy on the inside like a shrimp chip, and wafer-like on the outside. I think it was rather sweet, presumably from the maple. I couldn’t tell where the broccoli came in though.

Canapé 5:
Red-miso financier with ricotta and seaweed.

Amuse-bouche:
Morel and maitake mushroom chawanmushi with orange blossom and goat’s milk whey.

Breads and Butter:

Left: Seaweed butter.
Right: Sweet Vermont (I think?) butter.

Monte: The seaweed butter was really good. All that oceanic salty and briny flavor of seaweed combined with butter? Hell yeah!

Left: Ricotta-and-zucchini focaccia.
Right: Walnut bread.

Pear-and-poppy bread.

Course 1:
Scottish Langoustine
(Inside orange and cardamom gelée)
Crunchy black radish and almond milk crème.

Monte: I don’t know why the langoustine was inside a gelee. There are a lot of “I don’t know why”s in this meal though.

Course 2:
Burgundy Snail
(Encrusted with eggplant powder)
Melange of morels and anise hyssop, pine nut, girolles, and black sablé.

Course 3:
Aubergine Caviar (Aubergine is basically the UK word for eggplant.)
Eggplant sable with white sturgeon caviar.
“A fairytale of aubergine and caviar”

Course 4:
“Summer Salad”
Hearts of palm, lemon olive oil jam, white beer sorbet, black prince tomato. The dot of sauce on the left is a soy honey glaze. There’s also kaffir lime sprinkled over the dish.

Course 5:
Apple Wasabi 2012
Green apple | wasabi sorbet, extra virgin olive oil, and smoked Maldon salt.

Monte: This dish was pretty awesome. It’s savory and spicy from the wasabi and strangely sweet from the apple. The two flavors worked in combination pretty well, but felt almost like a palette cleanser, rather than a middle course.

Course 6:
Albacore Tuna
Flowering coriander, local Albacore tuna | black miso crust, pickled strawberry, coconut | yuzu jus (the menu calls it a “jus”, although the waitress called it “coconut curry”).

Course 7:
Course 7’s First preparation:
Rabbit burger

Monte: The rabbit burger was pretty tender, much more so than ground beef usually is. The bun was soft and buttery, and made this a delightful bite.

Course 7’s First preparation (continued):
Rabbit royale with cheese, brioche, crispy potato, and ramp mayonnaise.

Course 7’s Second preparation:
Rabbit loin
Slow-cooked loin, confit of sepia, cucumber | Chartreuse.

6 o’clock: Loin with saltwater gelée.
10 o’clock: Cuttlefish confit.
12 o’clock: Rib crusted with green tea.

Monte: The rabbit loin and rib were all very delicately cooked and had very tender meat, but the accompanying elements to the dish were, again, lost on me. I didn’t understand how the flavors were supposed to work together, and I didn’t know what the flavors were supposed to make me feel.

In the cup on the side: Foie gras mousse with squid ink on top.

Course 8:
Chabichou
Caramelized hazelnut, toasted hazelnut cracker, goat milk whey, Xérès gelée (cherry gelée).

This was a pretty weak cheese.

Course 9:
Rhubarb
Pink peppercorn and effervescent consommé of sake and rhubarb.

I forgot to take a picture of this one before I ate it :(. SAAAD. Oh well. I took a pic of the dish AFTER we finished it hahaha.

Course 10:
Maple
Smoked maple crème, sour cherry purée, coffee sponge cake, almond, and toast ice cream.

Monte: A pretty standard dessert with flavors I could clearly pick apart, unlike the rest of the meal. I really appreciated the sponge cake for truly being spongy – with that springy texture that gave way with some pressure and then sprung back into an aerated shape. It was a really fun dessert to eat.

Mignardises:
-macarons.
-chocolates.
-truffles.

Victor: I forgot to take a picture of this part, too :(.

Thoughts:
Monte: It really was just odd eating this meal and not really understanding where the chef is going with the dishes. I think Corton is the only place so far that has made me feel like this. I kind of want to come back sometime when I’m not screaming in agony for half the meal due to my leg, but at the same time, I don’t know if it’s worth the hefty pricetag just to be bewildered.