Fancy Friday (the inaugural event)

This Friday, my husband made reservations at Gaslight in the South end, and dubbed it the first "Fancy Friday." I guess it's all part of the "Love and Bliss" that is supposed to begin now that I'm finally finished with law school. We shall see how long it all lasts (both Fancy Friday and Love and Bliss).

Technically, we've had a few "Fancy Fridays" since the bar exam at the end of July (the month of July was pretty much a gastronomic bust). The previous Friday, we went to Oiishi (my favorite sushi restaurant in Boston), and two weeks before that, we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary at L'Espalier with a 12-course chef's tasting menu. I am very much "into" tasting menus these days. So, let's work backwards for three Fridays worth of eating-- I'll try to recall as much as I can.

Gaslight:
This week was restaurant week in Boston, which allows you to try some pretty great stuff for a reasonable price. Generally, we've avoided restaurant week because in our experience, the menus are watered-down and portions have reflected the reduced pricing. At Gaslight, however, we were able to order off the regular menu, which my husband did. I opted for the restaurant week 3-course dinner, with the $15 wine pairing. I was pleasantly surprised - my entire meal was great!

Appetizers: M won the prize with the appetizer he ordered, which was
a shaved Beet root Salad with toasted walnuts, watercress, red onion, dijon, and créme fraiche. It was the best part of both of our meals (of course, I taste everything he eats. . . mostly because I'm greedy about food, and not because I'm trying to make sure he's not getting poisoned). The beet salad was super fresh and had some sort of horseradish kick to it. It was a lovely mound of matchstick sliced red beets with a bit of watercress on the side. The sauce was amazing, and there were just enough walnuts to add a nice crunch and complementary nutty flavor. But, the horseradish (maybe it was just dijon?) in the dressing really made the plate.

I ordered the heirloom tomato salad, which was really good. Two large slices of fresh heirloom tomatoes that were perfectly ripe and some salted frissee on top with a few buttery croutons scattered about.

Main Course: M ordered the special-of-the-day, swordfish roti au poivre, which was served with haricot verts and mashed potato. The swordfish was not too thick, cooked perfectly, and dotted with red peppercorns. Yum.

I also had fish, opting for the Local Striped Bass with Gigante Bean, Arugula and Citrus Ragout. My fish was also cooked beautifully. The beans might have been slightly overdone, but were still quite tasty.

Dessert: Dessert seems par for the course when dining out lately (this had better change soon, or the pounds are sure to creep back on). My wine pairing included a glass of rose champagne, which thrilled me because I'm not big on dessert wines, but really do like champagne. We shared the strawberry shortcake, made of a nicely buttery but not too sweet biscuit paired with fresh strawberries and drizzled with a balsamic and mint sauce and topped with fresh whipped cream. The dessert could have used a few more strawberries (and more sauce, which seeped nicely into the biscuit). We both had cappuccino, which they kindly agreed to make with 2% milk for us. It was very nicely done, with a tap of cinnemon on top. The espresso was not burned at all, and the froth was perfect, as was the ratio of espresso to steamed milk.

Gaslight = a gastronomic success :)

Quick words on Oiishi and L'Espalier.

Oiishi was great. I've never been disapointed there. I realized this time around, that the sushi is served at room temperature, which I think contributes to it's soft and supple feel. The whole reason for this blog is to start to remember the details of really great meals . . . see? it's only been one week and I can't remember exactly what we ate. But, I know it was awesome. We shared four amazing makis and a plate of unbelievable nigiri. Two Gin and Tonics - got to love it.

Last year, we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary at No. 9 Park with the chef's tasting menu with wine pairings. That meal was fantastic, and I wish I wrote it down. I do know that in the middle, we had a course of the prune-stuffed gnocci and veuve cliquot. I learned that champagne mid-meal is a great idea :) And, that the prune-stuffed gnocci at No. 9 Park lives up to it's hype. The rest of the meal, though I can't recall the specifics, was awesome.

This year, anniversary dinner was also a chef's tasting. We decided this time, to not get so drunk. The wine pairing in a 7-12 course meal is probably never a good idea unless you are willing to not drink everything they pour (it's too hard for me to exercise such self control), so this time we went with a couple of wines by the glass, which, of course, I failed to record the names of. Nevertheless, the overall impression was that L'Espalier did not live up to the hype. We liked No. 9 Park far better, though L'Espalier does a great job with the home-made sorbets and shaved ice. Other than that, I cannot say that I was impressed for the amount we dropped on a single meal.