Degustation

Yesterday was the first time I had a degustation when my uncle took me for dinner at the Balzac. For jakuns:

Degustation: Tasting; the appreciation of sapid qualities by the taste
organs.

Even more jakun-er: Sapid - full of flavour.

Ok ok, even I didnt know what those words meant, Ive just heard of it, i though it meant buffet, but come to think of it, both those words are French in origin so why would they mean the same thing? Basicly its many many courses of small servings on extra large plates.

So first dish is called a Canapé (im lazy to look it up, but I think it means tasty tiny morsels of food meant to start up your taste buds). I think it was a chicken breast grilled with bread crumbs with 5 others herbs i cant remember. Tasty! About the size of half a standard nugget. (Note, these normally come the a glass of wine for each course to complement the dish, but I chose to skip it for the night, I can imagine I would be pretty sloshes after like 5-6 glasses).

Next was the soup, or Amuse Bouche. It tasted like a cream of mushroom osup but very rich, topped with lentils and fennel.Not to mention the cute teacup the size of ...well...a ping pong ball? oh so intricate...oh so intricate.

Third dish was pretty awesome, Seared Spiced Big Eye Tuna with Sauteed Squid, Lime, Avocado and Sesame Seeds. The squid was so intricately carved, for the extra delicate look.

Two more dishes before the main, came the Silver Dory with a Ragout of Celery Leaf Gnocchi, Avruga and Creme Fraiche. I learned what gnocchi is, its like some flour cake, haha. The rest, not so much. Lucky Ive seen enough movies to know to start from the cutlery on the outside. 4 knives, 5 forks baby!Talk about washing.

Woah this post is getting pretty long, but I know at least Esther will read until here. Tortellini of Roast Quail and Foie Gras with Baby Leeks. Apparently Foie Gras was banned for a certain time and was jsut let back in to Australia, considering what it is and how its made, yeah I think it would provoke the animal rights activists. But they dont do good things to gooses, basicly. Its very salty and the dish looked like a dumpling,haha, my uncle wanted to exclaim, "Is that a wonton?"

Finally the main: Stockyard Wagyu Rump Cap with White Asparagus, Confit Potato and Truffle Jus. I think this is the first time Ive had truffles, y'know the really crazy expensive mushrooms that have their own class. It's like thousands of dollars per pound or something. The dish was awesome, a bit on the rare side but I'm not complaining. Definitely a well worth waiting for main.

Haha, I like this part, the PRE-desert! Eton Mess - was made up of strawberries and cream, merange and some other little thingies that was delightful and just made you smile.

Finally desert was a Chocolate ' Louis XV' Delice.. Im not sure what is is, something between chocolate cake but not quite cake texture, more of a nougat bar base but not hard. They even painted the plate with chocolate, like with brush strokes and fading intensity and shit. You could of course lick it off when no one was looking.

FInished off with some camomile tea, twas a good 2.5 hrs spent...tasting.
Bon Appetit!