Landlording
Stop the press. We have bought a flat. In need of total renovation. Demolition started this Saturday.
Archive for November, 2005
Caramelised onions, artichokes and foie gras
Doesn’t get much more French than this, does it? Last Thursday Lukas took me out to dinner to The French Cafe, where we had all the above mentioned foods and more.
The French Cafe is consistently voted one of the best restaurants in Auckland and we couldn’t resist checking them out. First attempt was last Saturday when Lukas naively called in early afternoon with the hope of getting a table for the night. Yeah, right! For dining on Saturday the French Cafe requires at least 10 days advance booking. So we settled for Thursday.
To thank Lukas for his work on a recent project, SolNet generously offered to pay the first $150 of the bill so we planned on getting a bottle of wine to accompany our fine dining experience and being responsible citizens caught a bus to the city. It is only a 10 minute bus ride but we had to wait for about 20 at the bus stop after watching one bus drive away just before we got there. This didn’t phase us, we were determined to make this a positive experience but that almost changed when the bus driver demanded $4 from each of us…
Anyway, the restaurant lived up to our expectations. The food was divine, the service attentive but inobtrusive and the presentation superb. We had a bottle of Mt Difficulty pino gris (which gave me a slight headache the next day but was very tasty) to accompany our food. For starters Lukas had a chicken roll with foie gras (goose liver pate, very French) with artichokes (even more French) and some other fancy bits. I had a little tart with caramelised onions (divine!), fig and beetroot with some very creamy goats cheese on top. After the starters were so good we couldn’t wait for the mains - Lukas’ duckling was very delicate and the kumara mash and orange jus so silky he didn’t want to share. My snapper with asparagus risotto was very light but there was only one scampi, which meant I couldn’t share either. After such a feast we didn’t have any room left for dessert - pity, because the dessert menu looked delicious.
We stumbled outside barely able to standup (no, not drunk, just full!) to meet Greg, who generously offered to pick us up. I think we will have to go back to try some of the other delicacies on the menu - and some of the desserts!