The special menu says 'Dinde fermier (free-range)something something aux champignons airelles (wild mushrooms) something something' with cranberry sauce and gravy (46€).
Reading it on the menu it didn't sound like that much, so I ordered my fav starter, snails. Big mistake. I am still repenting. Splish splash 🏊♀️
They didn't mention we would get an 'amuse bouche'..a tiny cup of velouté(creamy soup) de panin(a kind of white turnip) with crunchy bits of chestnut in the bottom for contrast.
Why did I eat every snail🐌? If anyone had said to me you will someday move to Paris and eat snails 2 days in a row I would have socked them silly.
Ahh...the main course. The stuffing is the squarish block of wild mushrooms, plus mysterious bits. We got both dark and white turkey meat. Très riche. FYI I read somewhere turkey breast/dinde is the most often eaten meat in France. The little pan on the left contains an individual escallop of potate douce (sweet potato to you) with plenty of maple syrup (something else the French are mad for - usually Canadian). Just above - a big slab of butter from their own fermier. We were told this after the dinner. I wanted to ask for the butter back but was restrained by my companions. On the left a small bowl of cranberry sauce. Fortunately my dear friends from Vermont wanted none, so I ate all of the lingonberry sauce myself. Bear helped out. I passed on the gravy so it balanced out. The 2 whitish strips are turnip again.
The waiter assured us they do not normally serve American-style food like this. Does this look American to you aside from the gravy boat. Not that I'm complaining just stating a fact. FYI it was all extremely delish with great service. Benoit gets E for effort. We were hesitant whether to get a dessert.
Their baba au rhum is famous. We settled on 1 order of 3 flavors of home-made ice cream (from their farmer)as sort of a digestive. They kept bringing us freshly baked madeleines. A little plate of marshmallows, more madeleines and little ganache chocolates. I imagined we would be skipping the usual I-ate-too-much feeling. No way. We needed cranes to get out of there.
Oh la la la la la.
Outside a Christmas marche by Tour St. Jacques. And crossing my bridge a lovely light show as always. I hope you very much enjoyed your turkey too🎉. Keep Bear in Paris with letter subscriptions from my Etsy shop. FYI 🐻is 🏊♀️🏊♀️🏊♀️like crazy to work it off today and the rest of the week.