For our fifth anniversary, Kyle and I spent the night in San Francisco so that we could go to French restaurant Fleur de Lys and then to the opera. Neither of us had had a meal quite that fancy in a restaurant owned by a chef who is on TV a lot before, and I had only been to one opera a long time ago, and have been wanting to go again to see if I like it.
We were the first people at Fleur de Lys. Normally this would bother me, but I knew the place would be filling up quickly, so I decided to enjoy having five or six waiters focusing just on me for the time being. The restaurant is decorated so that it’s like you are in a tent from Arabian Nights, with drapery gathered at a point in the center of the ceiling. We sat in the middle of a room by a big vase of flowers. Our waiter was not stuck up. The music was kind of New Age-y, but I didn’t really mind.
As the evening went on, I was glad Kyle insisted on wearing his suit to dinner. We were easily the youngest people in the place, and everyone was wearing evening clothes and even fur jackets. The opera was the same way, so if we hadn’t dressed up as much as we did, I would have felt uncomfortable. As it was, I felt like I fit right in.
We got the four-course meal with wine pairing. That is: One appetizer, one half-fish course, one half-meat course, and a dessert. We had:
- Amuse Bouche:
Pureed eggplant topped with a roasted parsley cream–smooth and cold, a good palate cleanser
- Amuse Bouche 2: A creamy cold soup served in an eggshell that had been hollowed out and dipped in poppy seeds. You sipped the soup with a straw. I loved the presentation.
Appetizer:
- Me: Foie gras two ways. One, the foie gras was cut up in a tiny casserole dish with shitake mushrooms and fingerling potatoes. It was delicious. The other way was a little “burger” of seared duck and foie gras on a brioche bun. The bun overpowered the foie gras–in fact, all I tasted was bun. It was not very good, and I didn’t finish it. However, the other was so good, and I appreciated the presentation of both so much, that it didn’t bother me.
- Kyle:
Chops and saddle of rabbit with a bean salad. As usual, Kyle picked better and had the most delicious combination of fresh beans–possibly edamame–in an incredible sauce, topped with rabbit medallions. On the side were tiny rabbit chops in a reduction sauce beside a corn flan that melted in your mouth with creaminess. Score one for Kyle.
Fish:
- Me:
A single scallop crusted in hazelnuts, sitting on a bed of spinach. It was surrounded with pear tomatoes and tiny, amazing, truffle gnocchi. Wonderful. The textures in particular were complimentary–crunchy nuts, smooth scallop and spinach, etc. But my favorite was the gnocchi. They made the dish for me.
- Kyle:
Something to do with salmon and pistachio nuts. His wine was a nice buttery chardonnay that I was envious of.
Meat:
- Me:
Filet mignon with endives, oven-roasted pears, and a turnip gratin, all in a wine reduction sauce with pecans. I was in a very traditional mood. The meat was perfect, and the sauce was incredible, especially with the pecans. The white thing that was supposed to be a pear horrified me for awhile. I kept tasting it, wondering what they did to that pear to make it so bitter. Was it black pepper? Then I realized it was the endive, and it all slid into place in my mind. I don’t know where the pear was–maybe in the orange turnip gratin thing on the edge of my plate, which tasted too much like sharp cheddar cheese, and interrupted the flow of the dish for me.
- Kyle: Buffalo in a port reduction sauce. Very delicious. His sauce was slightly better, I think. But he didn’t have pecans.
Dessert:
- Me: Fresh Berry French-word-that-starts-with-a-G. I was served a plate that looked like a tiny funhouse of shapes and colors. There was a triangular coconut popsicle, a tube of pineapple custard topped with a raspberry, a dollop of chocolate mousse, a flat pastry covered with berries and the most amazing whip cream. (I always say you can tell a restaurant by the quality of their bread and their whip cream). It was so much fun and every bit of it was delicious.
- Kyle:
Gran Marnier soufflé. Yeah, well, okay, but did he get a coconut popsicle?
By the time we ate all this, we were getting late to the opera. We hurried outside and found there was another couple waiting for a cab. I was getting nervous because if you are late to the opera, they don’t let you in, and it’s hard to get a cab in San Francisco. But then it turned out that the other couple was going to the opera too, so they let us ride along with them in their limo. I had never been in a limo before! It is a very long car.
We saw Don Giovanni by San Francisco Opera. I was excited for a chance to use my opera glasses, but they were unnecessary because they have screens that let you see everything happening on stage. I found that while I don’t like listening to most opera music, I like seeing it performed. It is, after all, meant to tell a story with actors, and it is far more interesting when you are following along with that story.
But while listening to people sing Mozart is wonderful, the plot of Don Giovanni? Pretty darn bad. It rambles and leaves loose ends and throws in a ghost at the end for lack of a better way to wrap things up. Who am I to criticize what some have called the most perfect opera ever? A cheeky young thing. Go to the opera and see for yourself.
