My trip to Europe: L'Eden in Coublevie, France

0

Few years ago, we discovered L'Eden, a seafood restaurant located in Coublevie, Isère (check out my previous post). This is a spot that my family knows well, so we decided to go there to celebrate Mother's Day. Know that Mother's Day in France is always the last week end of May. 

The place was packed with families when we arrived, but we were the last to leave, after a three hour lunch...

The service was a bit challenging because the restaurant was clearly understaffed on a pretty demanding day. 

While making up our mind with the menu, we ordered the house cocktail that was made with champagne and curaçao, the latter giving a nice light blue color. Floating in the glass was a raspberry that went up and down as time went. 

We also ordered a bottle of wine, a Rasteau from 2010:

The brand is ORTAS that is an anagram for Rasteau.

Few moments after the brought the drink, they gave us a delicious velouté de champignons (cream of mushroom):

They had a set menu for the event, although they agreed to allow Jodi to order a vegetarian dish, as she did not like what they were proposing. Similar to last time, we ordered a Saint-Marcellin cheese salad. 

Nice looking, they put quit a lot of cheese, slightly toasted, on top of mesclun salad. 

On my side, I started with a wild salmon carpaccio with lime, apple, berries and olive oil. 

The carpaccio looked beautiful, made with slices of salmon a bit thicker than usual. The fish was sublime: fresh and delightfully fatty. Unfortunately, it was missing some acidity and the dish was overpowered by the olive oil. 

Next was the magret de canard with a morel sauce: 

Magret is duck breast that is typically thinly sliced with a bit of fat in the outside, usually cooked pink in the center. 

This was served with an écrasé de pomme de terre (crushed potatoes) that was deliciously creamy and some mushrooms. I really liked that dish: the magret was perfectly cooked and had a perfect amount of fat that had this wonderful grilled taste. And that morel sauce...so good! 

They also propose some cheeses like the fromage Blanc below, but I admit that after the feast I had that week end, I skipped it. 

For dessert, I chose the mango soup with a lemon sherbet and fresh mint. 

It was just ok for me, missing some mint and the mango not being that tasty. However, Jodi ordered the moelleux au chocolat, a delicious cake with a melted center. 

We finished our meal with an espresso. 

It was a nice Mother's Day celebration, Bonne fête Maman!

I am sure you wonder if I would recommend this place. I think it is always difficult to judge a restaurant as events like this one are always challenging. Think about it: for valentine's day or New Year's Eve, lots of restaurants are proposing overpriced prix-fixe that are not of the best quality. That does not make them bad. The same applies to L'Eden. 

L'Eden

395 Chemin des Voûtes 

38500 Coublevie, France

www.restaurant-poisson-grenoble.com

Enjoy (I did)!

If you like this post or the photos, feel free to share it using the toolbar below or to write a comment! 

And Remember: I Just Want To Eat!

Continue Reading »

My trip to Europe: Le Rempart, Tournus, France

0

Our last Michelin Star restaurant we tried in our trip in Bourgogne was Le Rempart in Tournus. Nice small city of approximately 6,200 inhabitants, located along the Saône river; it was very quiet at the time we were there, if not for the activity surrounding a small cruise boat where one could dine while sailing on the river.

The restaurant Le Rempart is located in a hotel with the same name. There is in fact the restaurant, as well as a low key bistro, located at the opposite side. 

The impressive building was a 15th century guardhouse, built on the ramparts that were surrounding the city, hence the name Le Rempart (The Rempart), and their logo that is everywhere. 

The decor is pretty elegant and it is definitely one level up from Pierre the restaurant that we visited the day before. At the entrance is a very small lounge where you can enjoy a drink from their large selection of alcohol. 

Then, the tables, not too close to each other. 

The menu, crafted by Chef Sylvain Gohier is very elegant, with an outstanding presentation that would make you think that the Chef is a painter and the plate his canvas. Again here, the food is not only for the pleasure of the palate, but also for the pleasure of the eyes. Showcasing incredible creativity, the Chef interprets dishes from different regions of France, sourcing the high quality ingredients he is using from French producers. 

We decided to start our meal with the house cocktail, made with whiskey, sweet wine (it might have been martini) and Pacherinc. 

With it, they served us some amuse-bouche. 

It was composed of:

Goat cheese

Tomato with chorizo

Tuna

They then served us bread and butter. 

Jodi picked the cereal bread

And I picked the olive and tomato one. 

Then, we all got a petit consommé de petits pois avec son anchoïade or peas consommé with anchovy cream. 

It started well! I love these little amuse that you get in restaurant of this caliber, because it opens your appetite. 

For the appetizer, I got the boeuf Charolais servi en tartare, copeaux de Cécina, Jaune d'oeuf confit et pissaladière aux anchois de Sicile. That is: beef tartare with yolk confit and pissaladière made with anchovies from Sicily. 

I tried beef tartare in the past, but did not like it. I was thinking that in this restaurant it would be fantastic; and I was right! It was succulent, the meat (boeuf Charolais is top quality beef) being very good, cut in very small cubes, giving a bit of texture compared to the ground meat I got in the past, that gave a mushy feel. I definitely discovered, if not re-discovered beef tartare there. 

Jodi got the saumon bio marqué au Fer rouge, tartare au citron Cedras et oeuf de poisson volant, sablé Parmesan et vinaigrette de betterave, or: organic salmon marked with an iron, tartare of lemon from Cedras, flying fish eggs, Parmesan crisp and beets vinaigrette. 

The salmon was delicious: simply cooked, it was a great piece of fish, very fresh. I liked the flying fish eggs with it as they added a delightful bitterness and saltiness to it. 

For my first entree, I had fish. Yes, I wrote first entree, because they propose a menu with fish and then meat. It was a bar de chalut cuit lentement, avec gnocchi de broccoli et écume de langue d'oursin or slow cooked bar fish, served with broccoli gnocchi and a sauce made with sea urchin. 

It was a succulent dish, the fish being cooked perfectly and very moist. I truly appreciated the fact that the light gnocchi had a very slight broccoli taste. 

In fact, Jodi got the same dish, but, as it was from the menu and not prix-fixe, she got a bigger portion and a totally different presentation.

The meat dish was agneau de lait d'Aveyron, carré servi rosé, avec asperges vertes or lamb rack cooked pink with asparagus. 

This was definitely my favorite dish: the meat was so good, tender and tasty with a nice charred fat, that I wish they had more. If you like lamb, I really recommend it. However, I did not like what was under that was surely not polenta, and had a weird taste. 

After the entree, they served us the cheese course. 

Yes, they brought the cheese cart and as Jodi put it, you could hear angels singing when they opened it! I could pick three different ones from a large selection of French cheeses. I chose:

Brillat Savarin, a triple-cream cheese made from cow's milk:

Epoisse (soft cow's milk cheese from Bourgogne):

Tomme de Corse (from sheep's milk):

It was served with une pâte de coing or quince jelly. 

Then we got a pre-dessert that was a crémeux de fleur d'oranger, purée de fruits rouges et chantilly. Meaning: orange blossom cream with red fruits purée and whipped cream. 

And dessert: that time, I went for the Grand-Marnier soufflé that did not only looked spectacular, but was succulent (and big). 

It was served with a lemon sherbet and a muffin that I really did not care about. 

Jodi got a selection of sherbet and ice cream. 

At that point, I was so full that I did not even think about writing down the flavors. We were also trying to figure out if the decorations on the plates were handmade. The answer from the waiter was funny: "We hired an artist and taught him how to make desserts". 

And they stuffed us with some cookies as if we still had room after such a feast...

I could not eat anymore and regretted not wearing stretch pants...

To accompany our meal, we got a white wine: Chassagne-Montrachet premier cru 2008. 

And a red: Chambolle-Musigny 2011. 

Both were proposed by the sommelier who did a great job advising about the wine. When asked if he prefers red or white with cheese, he interestingly said that he prefers white, because cheese would reveal too much the tannins of the wine, making it bitter, and vice-versa. 

This was a fantastic evening and dinner, in a nice place, with an outstanding service. Considering this and the cuisine perfectly executed by the Chef and his crew, I would not be surprised that a second Michelin Star follows...

Le Rempart

2 Avenue Gambetta

71700 Tournus, France

www.lerempart.com

Enjoy (I sure did)!

If you like this post or the photos, feel free to share it using the toolbar below or to write a comment! 

And Remember: I Just Want To Eat!

Continue Reading »