Bastille Day -Soif Santa Cruz

[Nathan P.]

Soif in downtown Santa Cruz abandoned there normal menu to put on a bistro event for Bastille day on Thursday. I was able to get the last table at around 6:10 so obviously there are a few other people in SC that would support a bistro! The Great Morgani was also on hand to add some accordian atmosphere to the festivities.

Overall the meal was really great. I opted to start with the pigs foot. This was fairly similar in look to the version in the Bouchon cookbook- Super tender minced pig foot formed into a patty, breaded, fried and served on french green beans with sauce gribiche. A different saucing might have been preferable for me, but the pig was insanely good and I could not find a single flaw in the execution.

I then had the blanquette of veal. The veal was braised perfectly. The sauce was rich and creamy without being heavy or dulling flavors. Also included were great baby white/red onions, carrots and turnips and a few chunks of rich marrow. A nice example of home comfort type food with really good proffesional execution and refinement.

I finished with a very good chocolate mousse (good chocolate flavor and not overly sweet) simply garnished with a couple strawberries and blackberries.

My only two minor quibbles with the evening were that the portion on the veal was too small. The richness of this dish and my starter balanced it out a bit but this was still mildly annoying. The other issue was that the special wines they had for the event were all $50+ While we started with an excellent Kermit Lynch imported Bandol from the regular list, we could not find a good follow up. We ended up getting a nice selection from the piemonte but it sort of missed the point of the meal. We figured since the french got their cuisine and grapes from Italy it was not too horrible of a thing to do :)

All in all a great event and well worth attending if you happen to be in SC next June.

The entire menu was:

le menu

Plateau de Fromages
Charcuterie du maison
Huîtres avec mignonette

Salade verte aux fines herbes
Poireaux frais vinaigrette
Moules Marinieres
Pieds du cochon, haricots vertes, sauce gribiche

Gnocchi aux herbes à la Niçoise
Saumon aux beurre, petit pois et morilles
Confit de canard aux légumes d'été et sauce moutarde
Porc rôti avec les haricot égrenés fraîche
Blanquette du veal à la moelle

Crème caramel
Tarte au citron
Mousse au Chocolat
Selection du sorbets du fruits frais

Tour de France - maillot blanc
Loire - 2003 Didier Dagueneau Blanc Fumé de Pouilly "Pur Sang"
Rhone - 1999 Belle, Pere et Fils Hermitage Blanc, Tain-l'Hermitage
Bordeaux - 2001 Château de Fieuzal Graves Blanc, Pessac-Leognan
Try the entire flight $24.50

Tour de France - maillot rouge, 1er
Burgundy - 2002 Pr. Florent de Merode Grand Cru, Corton Les Bressandes Pinot Noir
Southern Rhône - 2001 Le Vieux Telegraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape
(Grenache, Mourvedre, Syrah, Cinsault)
North Rhône - 2000 Benard Levet "La Chavaroche" Syrah Côte-Rôti
Try the entire flight $21.25

Tour de France - maillot rouge, 2 ème
2000,1996, 1995 Château Lynch-Bages Cabernet Sauvignon, Pauillac
Try the whole Flight - $23.50

[Carb Lover]

Thanks for the report, Nathan. Sounds like a fun night w/ mouth-watering food. I was impressed that the menu was completely written in French (and even more so that I could piece it all together even though I never learned French). Well, I suppose French food jargon is different.

The only screech in the menu was when I saw the gnocchi. Uh, isn't that Italian? Couldn't they have come up w/ a better vegetarian dish like a souffle or quiche or something?!

Questions:

1. Do you know if they'll be transferring any of those dishes onto the regular menu?

2. Any idea what flavors their sorbet assortment consisted of?

[Nathan P.]

I only tasted one of the gnocchi but it seemed a bit non-potato like. I was wondering if it was something like the Keller recipe which poaches a gnocchi that has a composition that I think is similar to pate a choux. They have had a gnocchi dish on the meu recently so maybe it is really popular? Everyone said I was crazy so I will have to ask next time I am in. I doubt anything will directly move to the menu since it is a different style though he does make duck confit for a dish. The pates may be an exception as the woman in the wine shop said he spent a week making them. Sorbets were raspberry, blackberry and something which I can't remember. THe menu was translated at the restaurant though I have just enough menu french to make it.