Julie and me
So, for Juju Wednesday (Julie and Julia put together dinner dates around town—hence the juju name), we went to Café des Artistes. I was in the middle of finals, so this was a welcome respite from learning the intricacies of international law and criminal procedure. Of course, the first thing I look for on the menu is frog legs. And they don’t have them. I mean, what self respecting French restaurant doesn’t have frog legs??? But they did have Moules et frites (steamed black mussels and french fries), which is the national dish of Belgium. The last time I had moules et frites I was actually IN Belgium (and that was awhile ago) so I decided to order it. And I ordered a decent Vignonais which was only $32. This wine was introduced to me by that French guy I dated for a nanosecond (which I thought was appropriate since we were at a French place), but he ordered the Coppola version which cost twice as much. French guy did have excellent taste in wine. And women. Haha! But I digress.
Ryan, Julia, and me
What did everyone order? To start with, Ryan and I shared the oysters. They were ENORMOUS, really fresh, and really good. They were literally the largest oysters I have ever consumed (and I have consumed my fair share of oysters). Laura got the goat cheese salad. Other people ordered various salads, but the tastiest thing was the sausage with Moroccan dip which Steve and Julia ordered. The sausage was juicy and succulent with just a hint of caraway seed, and the sauce was filled with different exotic flavors (probably turmeric, etc.) and quite tasty.
For the main course, Julia ordered stewed beef short ribs over fettuccine. The meat was excellent. It just fell apart on my fork. It was stewed in this tasty brown wine sauce, and I could have eaten tons of it. I didn’t bother tasting the fettuccine, because we all know French people don’t know how to make pasta (Steve confirmed this). Laura had escargot as a main course. Gross. I have tried them multiple times. Invariably I suck off the butter and garlic and spit out the snail. She said they were good though. Bryan ordered some fish thing over beans. It looked healthy so I didn’t ask for a bite. Julie, my hero, ordered the mac & cheese. Great cheese flavor, nice cheese crust, but the casserole was just oily noodles. A thicker roux was needed to stand up to the tasty crust. Steve ordered filet mignon, surprising me by not ordering the ribeye. It came with french fries (and who can do those better than the French?). And those were yummy fries! But my favorite fries by far are either garlic fries or greek fries. These fries were basically like really really good McDonald's fries. Rania got the mushroom ravioli, which I didn’t try. I had just met her, and I'm a little bit of a closet freak about my food obsession, so I didn't ask. As for my mussels, they were good, but the sauce needed more flavor. A little dash of white pepper and more garlic to liven it up would have been perfect. At least the fries were good!
Me squeezing Laura
Now for the desserts. This is the area where the French can actually outshine the Italians. Julie and I ordered the brioche bread pudding. It was nothing short of AMAZING. It was drizzled with this delicious caramel sauce. Each piece was dripping with custardy goodness. We also ordered the crème brulee, which was decent, but not fantastic. I’m really picky about crème brulee. I want to see fresh grated vanilla bean in that custard! The true dud of the evening was the flourless chocolate cake. It was more like a flavorless flourless brick than cake. I definitely needed the vanilla bean ice cream to even get it down. Obviously the pastry chef didn’t use the right sugar to butter ratio. I mean, I’ve had Pillsbury brownies that were better than this thing. LONG LIVE JUJU WEDNESDAYS!
