After we'd been married about a year, my wife remarked to me that my idea of a great restaurant was one that had thick linen tableclothes and napkins, heavy silver utensils, quiet, deferential waiters, and perhaps chamber music. And served meatloaf. That's about right.
Still, when I read articles such as this one about the wonderful gastronomy available in France, I think - again - that it would be nice to be exposed to that, to raise my sights a bit from the level of 'that hamburger was excellent with salsa on it' and 'you know what's pretty good? Sausage patties on a biscuit'".
And then I read things like this:
(T)he amuse-bouches composed a delicious calling card for southwest France—delicate eggs of alosse (a meaty fish from the Gironde, the Garonne estuary) in an herb-and-piquillo-flecked vinaigrette; duck foie gras with a vinegary onion compote; and a miniature foie gras crème brûlée. The brouillade d'oeufs aux asperges blanches des Landes, eggs scrambled so precisely they had the texture of thick cream, was garnished with succulent chunks of lightly caramelized white asparagus from the nearby Landes region, and the roasted lamb from Paulliac—served with an excellent and very vieille France garnish of wilted lettuce, green asparagus and tiny first-of-season spring peas—was superb.
Tuna sandwich, anyone?
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