restaurant review: chou chou, san francisco

[rone]

2wanda and i went to dinner with strychnine and Gina to their favorite French bistro, Chou Chou.  In a word, fantastic.  Upon arrival, we were brought complimentary cocktails (James and Gina are regulars, you see) by the sommelier, Germain, which turned out to be soju with lavender syrup and a dash of lime juice; a tad too sweet for me, but a very novel taste.  Kim and i shared their tiger prawn salad, which is one very large prawn cooked and split over arugula and spinach, with a lime dressing, green peppercorns, and capers.  James and Gina had the ostrich carpaccio appetizer, which they loved (i snuck a taste... very tasty), and we were brought a complimentary escargot appetizer in a garlic & mustard sauce; i wasn't eager to try it, given my previous escargot experience, but everyone else was so impressed by it that i was convinced to give it another shot.  It was much better than i expected (even the mustard sauce was not instantly offensive in my mouth).

For dinner, Kim had filet mignon and i had the seafood cassoulet.  James and Gina mirrored our choices.  The cassoulet was squid, clams, and a huge scallop and prawn in a crab bisque sauce (which definitely had a generous amount of saffron), in a clay dish, surrounded by pastry.  Cassoulet fans will be surprised to hear there were no beans in it, but i sure didn't miss them.  The wine was a `97 St. Julien Bordeaux; its cost was half the tab (!), but it was definitely superb.

For dessert, we each had variants of the chocolate tarte; Kim and James had the chocolate mandarin, Gina had the chocolate cherry, and i had the triple chocolate (of course).  The ladies each had a muscat dessert wine and we men each had a glass of sweet Banyuls.

Service was wonderful.  I highly recommended it.

Comments

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

The soju cocktail sounds hideous, but in an intriguing way.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Other than the oversweetness, it was subtly delicious.

[matrushkaka.livejournal.com]

Seafood cassoulet. Now that's interesting; so in place of duck fat, they used crab bisque, yes?

[tongodeon.livejournal.com]

We must see Strych9 and Gina. I haven't seen them in forever, and they are fine fine people.

[matrushkaka.livejournal.com]

And they seem to like good food, too!

[2wanda.livejournal.com]

Boy, do they!

[matrushkaka.livejournal.com]

I'll be back in town April 9th. Let's plan ahead this time, ok? I'd ike to see you.

[2wanda.livejournal.com]

Let's plan ahead this time, ok?

Ok.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

We talked about you, actually. Among other things, we mentioned your grilf was cute and they said, "Well, that's no surprise."

[glitter-ninja.livejournal.com]

How'd you get so much complimentary food?

This makes me jealous, because I was all set to blow all my money on a good local restaurant tomorrow night, but mom suckered me into going to her house this weekend for a holiday we don't celebrate.

[2wanda.livejournal.com]

James and Gina eat at this restaurant regularly, as it is walking distance from their house. When we walked in the place, the sommelier and waitress came up to them and enthusiastically embraced them and gave them kisses on each cheek. They are well loved there, which I'm sure is the reason why we got all the complimentary food. I suspect that had it been just rone and I, we would have been treated much differently.

Not a cassoulet...

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

But in France in January, I had scallops which came on a bed of green lentils (with just a little bacon in the lentils, to conform with your rules of food). Iwooried a little that the lentils/bacon component might overwhelm the scallops, but the flavours were superbly balanced. Your seafood cassoulet sounds fabulous.

Escargot doesn't really do it for me: it's OK, but the texture doesn't thrill me.

Oh, and '97 was a spectacular year for some French wines (and for many Riojas and Chiantis, elsewhere in Europe).

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i knew the `97 sautneres were very highly regarded, so i figured that it was probably a good year, on average, for French wine.

Lentils, bacon, and scallops... jesus, i think i need a new keyboard. I just drooled all over this one.

[some_other_dave]

Dumb question(s) time.

What is soju? And what is a banyul? From context, I would assume they are liqueurs (sp?), but I have never heard of them before.

Myself, with desert I like a ruby-style port.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Soju is a Korean light vodka made from grain or sometimes sweet potato. Banyul is a French appellation (http://www.epicurious.com/drinking/wine_dictionary/search?query=banyuls) which usually refers to a dessert wine made with at least 50% grenache.

[some_other_dave]

Ah, thanks. You learn something new every day...