Monday, December 13, 2004

Becasse: the degustation

After some indecision in choosing between the al-a-carte menu and the degustation menu, we decided upon the degustation. After all, you only live once, and how often does one head into a restaurant like this? Tempting on the a-la carte menu were the fried courgette flowers, the venison and the risotto. I always like choosing a risotto to get the measure of a place, but well, I can get risotto any old time right?

This was the menu:

1. Amuse Bouche - root vegetable soup with foie gras chantilly
2. Cured Saltwater Char with a Salad of Abalone
3. Ballontine (terrine) of squab with salad & game bird consommé
4. Grilled mahi mahi with garlic chive potato, seared prawns and red wine jus
5. Oxtail with calves tongue and a (stack) of potato, sweetcorn
6. cheese platter - triple cream brie, washed rind, blue, sheep's milk camembert, (Pyrenees ewes milk cheese)
7. Pre Dessert - vanilla bean champagne granita with nectarine jelly
8. Baked Brioche with Orange Flower Anglaise and Praline Ice Cream

We also asked for the degustation to be matched with wine, and so for each course, you get a half glass (tasting size), resulting in 2.5 glasses over your meal.

We started with a small shot of a creamy root vegetable soup, with a final note of turnip. Amuse Bouche. An odd choice, I would have thought that root vegetables were past their prime, considering we are well on the way into Summer. But given that the weather has all been stuffed up recently, and how my jonquils bloomed in midwinter (no! no! go back into the ground! you're not supposed to come out till September!), I shouldn't be surprised.

Number two was also the first entree offering on the a-la-carte menu. Salt crusted rectangle of Char resting upon a bed of small delicate greens & thin slices of abalone. The char was crispy, but over salty. I couldn't believe it when I read in this week's good living that chef Justin North hopes that the next supply of char is saltier. Very light, pleasing dish, I really liked the salad. What are those small greens, looks a bit like baby bamboo/asparagus with segments, but very thin and delicate? Anyway, I'm a fan. Abalone was thinly sliced. A lot different to the big meaty chunks of abalone in a Chinese restaurant, it was hard to pick up on the delicate flavour, with the pieces melting almost as soon as you put it on your tongue.

A round stamp of terrine, a baby curly endive & green bean salad, a square shot glass with a medium brown coloured consume, drizzled round with (I think) the same consommé reduction. Wow. Hitting the hard stuff here. The texture on the outside of the ballontine was very similar to that of squab skin. Ballontine was meaty in rich in taste. The consommé itself was very very rich. It had an overtone of sweetness, almost like a light caramel or palm sugar. Although it matched the ballontine, it got to be too overpowering. I felt like I was drinking meat sauces straight from the pan, and could not finish it. The salad (I must have a thing for green things) had a great dressing. Instead of your usual balsamic vinegar/olive oil match; it seemed to be only slightly sharp, and the oil used seemed to be derived from some meat. The oil off the game consume? I\'m uncertain. A very rich dish.

The mahi mahi was beautifully presented, with a finishing circle of the red wine jus which was delicious. Still with a salty crust, but not as salty as the char earlier. On a bed of green garlic chive mash that tasted more like 'green' or had a bit of a grassy texture; The two prawns were oversalty again; I'm not sure if the intended effect was a salt crust or not...

Woo! Animal bits! My favourite dish of the evening, Oxtail with calves tongue, a (stack) of potato, and sweet corn. Oxtail, which I also thought was a winter-warming dish was a little cylinder with some ham (?) in the middle in place of the tailbone. It was brown. It was rich. It had fat. It was good. The calves tongue - even better. It was browner. Almost caramelised to crispness on the outside, it was crunchy, with pockets of rich almost liver like (putty! putty!) flavour. Ooohhh, it was gooood. Well worth it if you're a carnivore & don't mind bits.

Quite full, but eager to try some French Cheeses, so I made room in my cheese stomach. I'm not sure if I tried these in the right order...and unfortunately I remember only what the cheeses were made from, and not anything else about them. I know that you're supposed to try from the lighter cheese to the more strongly flavoured ones - and to me, washed rind tends to be more stinky than the blues. Served with a whole-wheat ryvita-like cracker, a lighter pepper cracker & a warm walnut & date bread; also apple slices & grapes to clear the palate. Anyway, this is what we had:

A round stamp of terrine, a baby curly endive & green bean salad, a square shot glass with a medium brown coloured consume, drizzled round with (I think) the same consommé reduction. Wow. Hitting the hard stuff here. The texture on the outside of the ballontine was very similar to that of squab skin. Ballontine was meaty in rich in taste. The consommé itself was very very rich. It had an overtone of sweetness, almost like a light caramel or palm sugar. Although it matched the ballontine, it got to be too overpowering. I felt like I was drinking meat sauces straight from the pan, and could not finish it. The salad (I must have a thing for green things) had a great dressing. Instead of your usual balsamic vinegar/olive oil match; it seemed to be only slightly sharp, and the oil used seemed to be derived from some meat. The oil off the game consume? I'm uncertain. A very rich dish.

The mahi mahi was beautifully presented, with a finishing circle of the red wine jus which was delicious. Still with a salty crust, but not as salty as the char earlier. On a bed of green garlic chive mash that tasted more like 'green' or had a bit of a grassy texture; The two prawns were oversalty again; I'm not sure if the intended effect was a salt crust or not...

Woo! Animal bits! My favourite dish of the evening, Oxtail with calves tongue, a (stack) of potato, and sweet corn. Oxtail, which I also thought was a winter-warming dish was a little cylinder with some ham (?) in the middle in place of the tailbone. It was brown. It was rich. It had fat. It was good. The calves tongue - even better. It was browner. Almost caramelised to crispness on the outside, it was crunchy, with pockets of rich almost liver like (putty! putty!) flavour. Ooohhh, it was gooood. Well worth it if you're a carnivore & don't mind bits.

Quite full, but eager to try some French Cheeses, so I made room in my cheese stomach. I'm not sure if I tried these in the right order...and unfortunately I remember only what the cheeses were made from, and not anything else about them. I know that you're supposed to try from the lighter cheese to the more strongly flavoured ones - and to me, washed rind tends to be more stinky than the blues. Served with a whole-wheat ryvita-like cracker, a lighter pepper cracker & a warm walnut & date bread; also apple slices & grapes to clear the palate. Anyway, this is what we had:
a) triple cream brie (or camembert? I get them confused) - light & oozy but has that white mould/farmyard sort of 'breath' if it makes sense;
b) a washed rind - had a texture like edam, really not as stinky as expected;
c) a blue -yummy, my fave, went really well with the walnut & date bread;
d) a sheep's milk camembert (wooo, stinky!!);
e) an ewes milk hard cheese - has that nutty bit like the heidi tilsit, but not as much.

And the grapes/apple slices did NOTHING to cleanse the palate. the cheese just made em taste horrible. What's the difference between sheep milk & ewe milk? is an ewe a goat?

Pre-dessert of vanilla bean champagne granita with nectarine jelly came in a little shot glass. I wonder - is it a popular thing in Banc-trained chefs, or just in classically trained chefs? At both Banc and Balzac (hey ... at Becasse too, is there a thing with the 'B's here?), the pre-dessert was a little shot of something involving jelly. This one was gorgeous, a shot of light pink jelly with two nectarine slices, topped with a white granita with the telltale vanilla specks throughout. Mmmmm. I have had a champagne granita once, with natural oysters, and that was alcoholic and horrible. This was a divine, melt in the mouth, matches with all the notes type dish, and I wish I could have had more.

The real dessert-dessert was Baked Brioche with Orange Flower Anglaise and Praline Ice Cream. Praline Ice-cream, tasty, and not overpoweringly sweet; Baked brioche; also came with the little sugared citrus or orange peel & a syrup on top. the anglaise I presume was that fluffy whipped cappuccino stuff to one side. Good for the sweet tooth. I, alas had no space left in my dessert tummy, having converted it to a cheese tummy, and I could not finish it. I had saved a little of the pre-dessert though, and it was great as a meal finisher.

These were the matching wines:
2. 2002 Domaine Pierre de la Grange Muscadet (Loire Valley). On its own it had a Verdelho's peach nose & the body was similar to both Verdelho & a Semillon. It matched all elements of the Saltwater Char dish beautifully.
3. 2001 Scarborough Chardonnay (Hunter Valley). A bit of a so-so wine, typical chardonnay nose, but not much on the palate. Seemed to just match the Ballontine, but not the salad or the consommé.
4. 2003 Bries Pinot (Yarra Valley). This was pretty cold & dead when it reached the table. Some swirling of the glass produced a slight berry/strawberry nose, but that was all I got. Oxidised? Dead fruit wine? Unsure. It did not go with the dish at all.
5. 2001 Reydon Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (Langhorne, SA). Big nose. Big body. Very dark purple colour. Cut through the oily richness of the oxtail very well.
6. 2002 Peter Howland Shiraz (Donnybrook WA). I haven't yet work out how to match a wine to a cheese, and possibly since I destroyed my palate by eating the cheeses in the wrong order, it didn't seem to match any of them. Sorry.
8. Domaine de Bernardins Muscat Beaumes de Venise (Rhone Valley). Supposedly with raisin & floral notes that the sommelier thought would match the orange anglaise of the dessert; I picked up on more of an apple jelly kind of nose, possibly something herbal. Tasted like a sticky.

So as you can tell, I really enjoyed my dinner at Becasse. I don't know how other people have managed to have the degustation menu and _still_ feel the need for pizza afterwards to fill the gaps. Go & do the ramen challenge if you don't appreciate it! Service was 2/3rds good, I'm afraid one person just grated on my nerves. The degustation menu, matched with wine, if you're a drinker is well worth it and highly recommended. I saw two other tables doing the degustation thing, and declaring that it was the best meal they had ever had. If you can save up the cash, do eeet!

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