menu mysteries
OK, so since I can't really walk at the moment (making shopping tricky), I am basically eating entirely in college, even breakfast; I am fortunate to have this option. I thought I was fairly competent on menu-French, but I have been bamboozled by something *every day* this week. I have learnt that 'champagne sayabade' (sp?) is a strange kind of whipped sauce over fish (it was turbot I think); that 'faux filet' is - well, some other bit; and that 'vacherin', disappointingly, is not actually a very small cow for dessert but meringue. Tonight I'm apparently eating:
Scallops with chilli oil
***
Venison with Cumberland sauce
Salsify
Cabbage parcels
***
Rhubarb clafoutis
***
Croute Arnold Bennett
So, combined wisdom of my friends-list - what is i) salsify, ii) rhubarb clafoutis and iii) croute Arnold Bennett? Has the chef just made the last one up? Experience would suggest that the rhubarb thing is sweet (conventional sort of pudding entry) and that the croute is, oddly, a final small savoury dish. To add to the hilarity, there are only two of us down for dessert (the cheese/fruit/dessert wine/chocolates/snuff bit afterwards upstairs) which means we have to decide whether to have it laid out and pass everything round to each other solemnly - in the *correct* direction obviously - or whether to ask the butler to do something more low-key for us (cheese and chocolates would be my preference I think), which would be a lot kinder because then he can just put it out and go home.
It is a strange, strange life.
Scallops with chilli oil
***
Venison with Cumberland sauce
Salsify
Cabbage parcels
***
Rhubarb clafoutis
***
Croute Arnold Bennett
So, combined wisdom of my friends-list - what is i) salsify, ii) rhubarb clafoutis and iii) croute Arnold Bennett? Has the chef just made the last one up? Experience would suggest that the rhubarb thing is sweet (conventional sort of pudding entry) and that the croute is, oddly, a final small savoury dish. To add to the hilarity, there are only two of us down for dessert (the cheese/fruit/dessert wine/chocolates/snuff bit afterwards upstairs) which means we have to decide whether to have it laid out and pass everything round to each other solemnly - in the *correct* direction obviously - or whether to ask the butler to do something more low-key for us (cheese and chocolates would be my preference I think), which would be a lot kinder because then he can just put it out and go home.
It is a strange, strange life.