Well, I can normally eat as much as is served but the food was so rich and
we we a late seating of 8:45 PM.

Don't get me wrong, it was very good but I agree in the wine, it was almost
the same price as the food per person. The red, their house label I would
have expected to be better but it was good.
"cwdjrxyz" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> On Oct 21, 10:27 pm, "Richard Neidich" > wrote:
>> Ate at French Laundry Yountville last week. First, was it the best
>> dinner
>> ever. Actually not in my opinion. Was it a great evening? Yes, without a
>> doubt.
>
>> We tried a wine called Modicum 2002 for French Laudry. It was a
>> Cabernet.
>> Their house wine. Not impressive. To high of Alcohol. But I have to
>> admit
>> when the food came which was a hybrid of Kobe Beef with a black angus it
>> paired well. Would select a different wine next time if ever.
>>
>> No wine after that.. we were stuffed. They had to give is a to go for
>> all
>> the cookies and chocolates that followed dessert. Oh yeah there was a
>> cheese course as well.
>>
>> If anyone decides to go there...don't eat for 2 days in advance...to much
>> food.
>
> Too many modern high end restaurants confuse excessive amounts of food
> as part of high quality, especially on tasting menus. For that reason
> I am unlikely to try a tasting menu at most places and am unlikely to
> go to a restaurant that does not have a la carte choices or at least a
> tasting menu of just a few courses. Another problem with tasting menus
> of a large number of courses is wine unless the party is large,
> everyone orders the same thing, and one can justify ordering a bottle
> or half bottle to go with each course for which wine is desired. One
> indication of a great restaurant used to be that not only were they
> known for the quality of the food on the menu, but you could just
> order what you wanted without a menu and they would cook it for you.
> You of course would have to make your request ahead of time if you
> wanted something that took many hours to slow cook etc. This sort of
> service seems to be gone in the US, at least. It requires a huge
> staff, a kitchen that makes nearly everything fresh each day, and that
> has all of the basic sauces always at hand with which to build
> compound sauces.
>
> I only had one tasting menu many years ago that I thought was done
> right. It was a Japanese restaurant in the US, and their tasting menu
> was about 10 courses. However each portion was a very small jewel. You
> did not feel bloated before the meal was over. Unfortunately if you
> order the tasting menu at most of the top rated restaurants in the US
> today, you are unlikely to be able to eat everything, and if you did
> you might feel like an old Roman figged pig :-). In old Rome, pigs
> sometimes were fed a huge amount of dried figs. Then they drank a lot
> of water. This caused the figs to swell and bloated them greatly. Then
> they were cleaned and cooked. The process was supposed to increase the
> quality of the meat.
>
>