They came by with an amuse-gueule of quail egg topped with salmon roe in a creamy ginger sauce: this was entertaining, but I thought the ginger sauce a bit strong: I didn't use it. It was a pleasant little thing and rather artistically presented, with a tuft of radish
sprouts on the side of the tiny plate. The egg was soft-boiled, and the roe, of course, was raw salt-cured.
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Rabbit fricassee with spring vegetables was not a superabundance of meat with some nice vegetables: pearl onions, salsify, small peas, baby carrots, thread-like green beans. The sauce was winy and good, although there was a heavy hand with the salt. With this went a
California Pinot Noir, J 1996: ruby red, lightish, meaty, really a nice wine but a bit much at $10 a glass.
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Pan-seared black sea bass with squid ragout and a sauce of carrot with anise and orange was pretty spectacular, although I like my fish done just a little less than the medium that it came. Perfectly fresh fish with a crispy skin and snow-white flaky flesh; the sauce,
again very light, was one of those things you think won't work, but they do after all; the squid came as a tangle of linguini-like shreds tossed in garlic oil. I could have eaten the squid all day. I ordered a Saint-Veran 1997 (Verget), which was your very standard
Chardonnay, but exceptionally clean; it too was $10 a glass.

I chose as our main wine a bottle of Gigondas 1995 (Guigal); one of the few "bargains" on the list at $35. It was robust and rich, good tannin and acid but with some sugar to balance it and make it seem ready to drink. A distinctly pepper nose. With this we decided to
get a couple of fairly robust meat dishes: Herb-crusted rack of lamb with salsify and carrots (listed as Provencal style on the menu) was 4 chops of extraordinary velvety smooth and tender baby lamb coated with a crust of parsley, chervil, and maybe fennel fronds, in
a demi-glace based sauce. A very simple preparation and a nice one, highlighting the quality of the ingredients.
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Osso buco (boneless) braised in carrot/tomato sauce with spring vegetables (peas, green beans, cherry tomatoes, chervil, garnished with a potato "osso" with marrow beans: this came as 5 or 6 huge blocks of tender stew in a pretty standard but delicious sauce. The
spring vegetables were much the same as in the rabbit fricassee, alas. The great amusement was that instead of a messy marrow bone, the center of the plate had a potato hollowed out into the shape of a bone and filled with potato puree beaten with stock and butter
and marrow; it was topped with quite a number of perfect little bean shapes, which turned out to be sculpted bits of bone marrow - actually a spectacular achievement that took a minute to appreciate and then just a few seconds to destroy.

I thought of having a filet mignon for dessert to go with the 1/4 bottle of wine remaining; I chickened out. B ordered the lemon meringue torte with basil sauce - a bit of an oddity, basil sauce, but it went remarkably well, and this was one of the reasons one goes to
such a place: to find new taste relationships that you'd never have thought of yourself but that go together as seamlessly as hot dogs and beans or foie gras and apples. It was a huge piece: about six inches square.I had decaf espresso (insufficiently decaffeinated,
I discovered) and the chocolate bar with hazelnut cream sauce. A childish extravagance, and my eyes goggled out when they served three of them, each twice the size of a Baby Ruth bar. They consisted of rich dark chocolate mousse layered with crisp wafer and puddled
with a hazelnut sauce that looked like cafe au lait. We decided that 1. it was near the end of the evening, so they had lots of surplus food and 2. they were amused by us. We cleaned our plates nonetheless. So they brought us a tray that contained
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Chocolate-covered grapes, espresso squares, mini-fruit tarts (raspberry, blueberry), pistachio wafers; I think this was a test: real true card-carrying gluttons would have wolfed the whole: we ate the good things and left part of the less good things. The wafers (thin
lace cookies with slices of pistachio) were extraordinary; the tarts were good but ordinary; the grapes were just plain weird (Thompson grapes dipped in good dark chocolate and then rolled in cocoa); and the espresso squares tasted as though they had been set up with gelatin.
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I'd go again, if I were rich enough. Michel Richard's Citronelle, in the Latham Hotel, Georgetown. Dinner for two, $100-200 without wine.

The other culinary highlight of this leg was Edy's Chicken and Steak, a Peruvian-style place run by a Thai lady. Good plain food, the chicken being roasted with a fusion between S. American and S. Asian spices, the "steak" a tough but tasty piece of marinated round.
Also marinated pork chops and spicy, fatty chorizo sausage. Fried yuca ($1 extra for the privilege of not eating French fries) is excellent; iceberg lettuce salad is not. For dessert, go to the counter at the far side of the restaurant, which sells tropical fruit
ice creams and pastries filled with dulce de leche. All two gluttons could eat: $20.
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UA 911 IAD BOS 11A. I didn't bother to use my 1K Clout, as a 413-mi foodless flight on which I was going to try to get some shuteye anyhow (I prop myself up against the window, comfy enough for me in Y, but in F I get a neck ache unless I sit bolt upright - and yes,
I do wipe the hair grease off the window both before and after the flight) was not worth the certificate. So some lucky premier got upgraded (the waitlist for F was long). Got put in what is actually the first row after E+ but has excellent legroom (n.b.) We took off
in a driving rainstorm, had turbulence throughout. Ch 9 on - very blase captain who reported light chop (ATC said "everyone else is reporting moderate") - eventually we really hit a bump, and everyone lost their teeth, and the guy laconically reported "yeah, a few
pockets of moderate." I actually slept through most of the flight, but people said it was mighty bumpy.
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Aside (referring to the P.D.Q. Bach Missa Hilarious: "The autograph score bears, after the last double bar, the inscription "Deo Gratias" (Thank God!). These words are not in the composer's handwriting.

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Cheers
Michael *G

Wow! This sets a new standard for food reporting! Thanks, violist!

Wow, violist, what a great report!
Thanks for extra details!
I printed out your trip report so I could read it over, and maybe try one of the restaurants later in the year.

Linda

... thanks, QL: as I've warned those who asked, I am going to increase the level of food fanaticism on this board. <br> I didn't do so at all last year (too busy), but on 3 occasions in 1998 I flew somewhere just to eat a meal. Even when I ostensibly have other things to do, my stomach (slightly too big, but not grossly so) rules many of my actions and acts as a trusted advisor for most others.

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Cheers
Michael *G

I thoroughly approve of your mission, violist.

This is my kind of posting. Bravo! More!

I was going to respond earlier but than I got hungry. Great report