We arrived in St Barth's to find our hotel restaurant closed on
Sunday, so we
headed down to road to the "village" of Lorient and
dined at LA TABLE de
JULES. It's a quaint spot with nice decor, clean
linens and excellent
service.
We discovered this to be the norm on this island of 8000 people
and
100 restaurants, many of the highest caliber.
Samuel perused the menu
and decided on the Filet de BOEUF aux Herbes
Demi-Glace au porto et datte,
pommes sautees et oignons confits. Will
asked for this plain and he got a
plain perfectly cooked filet with
the gorgeous potatoes. I then asked for the
sauce which they brought
out promptly, Samuel adored and poured the entire
gravy boat over the
filet.
It was a hit.
We started with a bottle of M.
Chapoutier SAINT JOSEPH Rhone White
2008 which was wonderful in its mineral
content and superb with the
starters:
Tartare de THON condiments a
l'echalotte et gigembre, gressin. The
tuna tartare was huge and superb with
wonderful flavors from the
shallots and ginger. My Feuillete d'ESCARGOTS en
Meurette, Cepes, oeuf
mollet et mahi fume was a dream come true. The snails
were arranged
atop a large rectangle of puff pastry with the superb red wine
sauce
all around. The cepes mushrooms were in a duxelles under the
pastry
and on the side as well with small pieces of smoked
mahi-mahi
scattered around and a poached egg atop the cepes.
The bread
arrived and it too was superb and we all used it to mop up
the sauces. You
could tell it had been cooked fresh, as every
ingredient seemed to be. Since
St. Barths is technically part of
France, the ingredients are indeed flown in
from the motherland daily,
and it shows.
We moved on to a creamy rich
and full-bodied POUILLY FUISSE Tete de
Crus 2010 from Chateau Fuisse that was
perfect with our local fish
main courses:
Filet de BALISTE (a local firm
whitefish also called Bourse) et
Brandade de Morue Parmentiere au Poireau,
Endives Braisses. The fish
was simple and the Cod Brandade rich as is
required with the leeks and
endive braised to perfection. My ST JACQUES
Poelee, Chiffonade de
Legumes Croquants, Vinaigrette de Tiede Betterave en
Balsamique was
also perfection. The huge sea scallops were cooked just right
with a
nice crunchy sear on the top, the crunchy veggies were carrots
and
zucchini cooked better than I have ever had anywhere, and the
lukewarm
pickled beets were a nice foil, but don't get any raves.
The
only bad thing about the place was that we did have to pour our
own wine a
couple of times, but their timing on the food was
excellent.
Samuel begged
for the MOEULLUX de CHOCOLATE a molten cake that did
melt along with THE
GLACE a la menthe ( a small glass of iced mint
tea) which he adored and
Fraiche SORBET ORANGE Presse which he did not
like, but we gobbled up. Will
and I split the TATIN des DEMOISELLES a
gorgeous version of the flaky tarte
with Salted Caramel Ice Cream and
Grilled Marshmallows. Small pieces of sugar
brittle came with
everything and the check arrived with more yummy
marshmallows!
We knew this week was going to be special.
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