two. ate.

It's 8 pm and it's time to get our steak frites on! Down the street to La Mauzac, table for four, menus....hey! Wait a minute. No onglet. No frites. Lots of foie gras. (OK, that last part isn't so bad....) But still....I want my dish, dammit.

After debating whether we should ask for it or not (bad idea usually since there's a reason a restaurant *has* a menu), we (well, Meriko drew the short lots as the asker) decided to ask. Bad idea. Really bad idea. The man who owned the place said that he cooks his food with what is fresh and in season and that the menu was what they had. I'm not sure he was offended (turns out he wasn't - just confused why we asked) but at least two of us felt like we had just insulted the entire nation of France and maybe the hilly parts of Belgium.

We got over our bad selves and proceeded to wreck another menu. The foie gras menu was pretty amazing and an "asiette" (plate) for selected foie pates was ordered along with some other starters. Janet and Russell opted for the duck confit; Meriko and I, the coate du beouf for two, done "blue" (more on that in a minute). Oh and a bottle (maybe two) of a 2004 Alaina Julien Guillot Bourgogne.

The foie selections were stunningly good with the an ultra dense pate with a slightly blackened crust being best. One was served with a bit of fig confiture. Wow. On to the mains...

Duck with pineapple...
The duck was served with pineapple and sated the meat-and-fruit-marriage cravings of Janet and Russell. Meriko and I were all about the MEAT. A large, thick slice of what we speculated as ribeye arrived, fully raw in the middle (that's "blue" or "bleue") but crispy on the outside. Roasted potatoes made their way to the table as well...meat, potatoes, red wine. Oooh, this was one flavorful piece of beef. Caloric sanity in the form of a small salad of frisee with vineagrette also arrived which provided relief.

Meat: bleue...

We lingered over dessert and after dinner drinks and the staff was real nice to us...we even were invited back for the first day of the Nouveau Beaujolais season (tomorrow). Just show up at around 8 and we'll get you in to enjoy another nice meal...just don't ask for steak frites!