Sooooo.....

[RStar]

Oh, yeah. I forgot to ask, what's with all the dead seals?

[Gemini Cricket]

Love the pics!
The bunker pic made me laugh and the dragonfly pic is uber cool.
Cute baby!

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by RStar

Oh, yeah. I forgot to ask, what's with all the dead seals?

They're not dead. It's a photograph, things don't move in photographs, even if they're alive. I think you've been reading too much Harry Potter.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

They're not dead. It's a photograph, things don't move in photographs, even if they're alive. I think you've been reading too much Harry Potter.

It's a lie, it's a lie! Harry Potter is non-fiction. They told me so at a Flourish and Blott's book signing!

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by RStar

Oh, yeah. I forgot to ask, what's with all the dead seals?

They're not dead - they're resting

[Alex]

Though if you go at the right time of the year the beach really will be littered with dead seals since so many pups get crushed by indifferent bull males.

[Chernabog]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

They're not dead - they're resting

BJ and I are playing a game where in one of the parts you get to kill baby polar bears and take their pelts. Totally PETA-friendly.

[Prudence]

Is that Hubert Keller as in Top Chef Masters contestant Hubert? If so, I am exceedingly jealous and want details on the meal.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Prudence

Is that Hubert Keller as in Top Chef Masters contestant Hubert? If so, I am exceedingly jealous and want details on the meal.

It is indeed, and that's the reason we chose it. We're Top Chef fan geeks and Keller's definitely our favorite of the Masters (with Bayless a close second).

The meal was divine. I won't recall all the details but here's what I can recall. There were 4 of us, so lots of dishes and I don't remember every one.

First course, CP and I both had an asparagus salad with fois gras and black truffles, with a perfect brioche. The highlight of the dish was definitely the cream of salsify on the plate. Which would be a theme as the highlight of one of our friend's courses was a cream of saurkraut. Yes, cream of saurkraut. SO GOOD!

I was the only one who did a 4 course meal, so I had a scallop. I don't think it's the same one that's on the menu online, but similar in that it was nut crusted and deliciously so.

My main was venison chop. I have habit of getting venison whenever I'm at top end restaurants. It's something I rarely eat elsewhere, plus it gives me a good comparison point between them. This one definitely stood out. First, I'd never had a chop. Second, the sauce was not sweet, the first time I'd ever been served vension without a sweet sauce. And not surprising that a french master like Hubert made a perfect sauce. CP had duck, basically a classic orange sauce, but with fresh mandarin and a pureed celery. My friend's wife also had the duck, he had a filet with mac&cheese (purely for the delight of ordering mac and cheese at the fanciest restaurant he'd ever been to). The filet was brilliant, the mac and cheese was good but not anything spectacular.

I won on dessert. The ladies both got chocolate soufles, which were good. I've forgetten what he got. I had the "fleurburger". It was so much fun! The plate arrived and it had a little "burger" with bignet as buns, ganache as patty, a strawberry slice as tomatoe and a kiwi slice as pickle, with a kiwi spear on the plate as another pickle. There was a helping of fennel ice cream "pome frits" (as we were taking video one of us can be heard to say, "hurry, your french fry is melting!"), and a yummy banana shake served in a shot glass on the plate.

Amusingly, having just seen Keller run into near disaster on Top Chef when servers twice knocked over a shotglass on a plate while serving, the shake was firmly glued to the plate (probalby with some sugar-based paste).

The service was top notch. If you were to stand and head to the restroom, practically before you were out of sight of the table a server was there to refold your napkin for you (in synchronization if 2 people left the table!), and there to pull your chair out when you returned, and yet it never felt like anyone was hovering over us. Our server was very helpful, happy to give us a list of the wine pairings and point our friend who lived locally to where he could get bottles as well as the name of "his guy" at the wine exchange.

It seemed the chef Keller was not there. I imagine he was getting his rest as the following day he was scheduled to appear at a Top Chef demo/Q&A in Napa (wish we could have fit that in!). But even without an apperance it was just awesome to taste his food!

[Prudence]

I am green with envy. GREEN I tell you!!! That sounds so delicious! And I'm with you on him and Bayless. In addition to producing yummy food, it looked like they were the nicest to their "staff." I know they're big name chefs, but the former contestants were hardly straight out of culinary school and what'shisname acted like he was the only one with any skills. At least that's the way the editors presented it. As someone who has skills and is currently is in a situation where her employers use her for data entry and taking minutes, I felt I could relate. I liked Keller's bit about mentoring them That was him, right? Him or Bayless. Anyhow, I knew who I would have rather worked for...