Some of you may watch the hit show, Top Chef on Bravo TV. It wrapped up it's fifth season a couple of months ago, which I think was one of the best seasons. One of the finalists from this season (and my favorite contestant), Jamie Lauren, happens to be the executive chef at a San Francisco restaurant called Absinthe. I had lunch there a while back and left her my business card, telling her to contact me if she wanted to see any shows.
Turns out that little outreach went quite a long way. After providing Jamie with tickets to the opening night of a sold out show, she hit me back with an extraordinary meal at Absinthe, which I took advantage of last night.
My foodie friend and I decided to do a late dinner, and we ended up hanging out for almost three hours. We started off with some delicious vodka martinis to get our buzz going. Once we were seated at our booth, we ordered some Hood Canal and Beau Soleil oysters, paired with two half glasses each of French white wine. One was slightly oakey wall the other was quite effervescent and went well with the oysters. We then ordered some very interesting dried apricot and sage country pate. Jamie informed us it's one of her favorite dishes and the pate is hard, more like salami, so you don't even need to spread it. It was delish. Following the pate was some escargot in the shell, which I absolutely love and try to order every time I eat in a French restaurant.
On to some red wine. My friend got two Pinot Noirs side-by-side, while I opted for a Bordeaux and a Cotes-du-Rhone. All four were very palate-pleasing. I dined on braised Lamb Shanks with Israeli couscous, while my friend ordered the halibut. We tapped off the meal with some sheep's milk cheese and some absinthe, of course. The overall meal was spectacularly satisfying, and I will definitely be back to give Jamie some more well-deserved business, as should you!
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