Beast

Beast does two seatings a night, and we had reservations for the later 8:45pm seating. The people around us were kinda lame, but the food that evening was excellent.

We started off with a bang, a small bouillabaisse soup. At the bottom of the cup was a perfectly plump mussel as well as a shaved scallop. The broth was excellent, buoyed by the intermittent saltiness from the trout roe. They gave us one slice of garlic toast, but I used more slices of bread to help soak it up. I could have eaten this all night.

Petite bouillabaisse

Next was the charcuterie plate. This was a great course, as it comprised a lot of techniques and preparations. The quail egg and steak tartare on toast was the weakest not because of its own deficiencies, but because of the relative strength of the rest of the plate. The chicken liver mousse with maple bacon was of course a favorite of mine, and the paté was excellent, especially with the mustard and cornichon. The course was highlighted with the foie gras bon bon, topped with a sauternes gelée. The fattiness of the foie highlighted the butter of the cracker, and the whole thing was like a room temp ice cream in terms of its richness. The sea salt with the gelée, paradoxically, helped to highlight the sweetness, and it was a great mini-dessert, providing an apt coda to the course.

Foie gras bon bon

At this point, they served an intermezzo, a sorbet of elderflower (housemade, not St. Germain).

Next came the roulade of beef, which I thought was the weakest not in terms of technique or flavor, but just in imagination. I think that after the first two hits of the bouillabaisse and the charcuterie that I was hoping for more from the meat course. Still, it was excellent, and perfectly red in the middle. The Oregon truffles were a bit lost on the more well-done portions of the exterior, but the earthiness came through when I got to the red interior of the the roulade. It was served with seven-sided tournants of potato, fried in duck fat. Honestly I didn't get much of the flavor out of this, and I opted to just use the seven-sided potato to soak up some of the jus. The bed of wilted greens also went well with the sauce.

New York roulade of beef

The salad course was my pick for most surprising, given that I expected so little from butter lettuce. But the roquefort dressing was essentially the best blue cheese dressing I've ever had, and it complemented nicely with the curried candied hazelnuts. A steller dish with plenty of crunch.

Butter lettuce salad

The selection of cheeses were quite interesting. There was a Nigerian raw sheeps milk cheese which had an interesting beet-like vegetal flavor toward the back of the palate. Likewise, the runny French reblochon had a slight flavor of broccoli. My favorite was an Italian cheese, which was semi-hard, semi-salty, and really just an all around pleasing piece of cheese, especially when paired with poached winter fruit.

Dessert was quite decadent: a delicious salted caramel ice cream was served with a chocolate truffle cake. The cake tasted like a very refined fudge brownie, but the star was the salted caramel, a flavor that has recently become quite the hit in chocolateries around the world. The salt, again, helped to highlight the sweetness of the caramel, which would have become to overbearing and cloying had it been served on its own. Instead the savory aspects cut through the rich aspects, and allowed me to fully enjoy a big slab of chocolate and dollop of ice cream.

I wish we could have sat next to more interesting people, but alas, that's the nature of prix-fixe. You get what's given to you. I can't wait to return to Beast.

Salted caramel ice cream

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Postby Kristi on Mon Feb 09, 2009 2:58 am
Wow, thanks for the great write-up with pictures and everything! This makes me want to head to Beast ASAP.