Birthday Dinner at Menton!

I'm very excited because this week I turned seven! My mom and brother and sister woke me up with cupcakes, and my mom hung streamers up in my room, and I got balloons and presents! It was a great day!! But one of the most exciting things that happened is that I got to go to Menton for dinner. I chose Menton because my brother went there for his birthday last year and said that it was great.

We went early and were the first people there. The hostesses were very nice and the restaurant is very pretty. The tables are a grainy wood and I liked the way they look. When they asked what kind of water we'd like, they also asked if we'd like any citrus, which I thought was a nice touch. I requested a lemon.

We started with an amuse bouche from the kitchen, which was smoked salmon, and I think that it was rolled with creme fraiche and dill.

I liked how they served this on big miso soup spoons.

Then we ordered the tasting menu. But I really really wanted to add on caviar and cheese too and my parents said yes because it was my birthday dinner! We got the caviar first. It came with brioche toast, creme fraiche, chopped egg whites, chopped egg yolks, red onion and chives. I cut my brioche toasts in half so that I had more to make up! I liked spreading creme fraiche on the brioche and then adding both kinds of egg and caviar and sprinkling chives on top. I don't like raw onion because I think it's too strong, so I didn't use that.

I liked this presentation, especially how everything was a circle, like the tin of caviar.

This was the combination that I liked best!

Next we got Parker House rolls. Parker House rolls are oval shaped rolls that are easy to split in half. They were warm and fluffy and tasted buttery and sweet. They're easy to split because ovals of dough are folded in half before they're baked. They were served with butter and salt. I liked it with the butter and a little bit of salt on top.

Can you see where the dough was folded down the middle?

Then we finally started the actual tasting menu! First we had Tomato Salad with Tomato Water, Parmigiano Reggiano, Green Goddess and Cucumber. This wasn't my favorite course. But that's probably not fair because I really don't like tomatoes, so of course I'm not going to love a tomato salad!

I thought that the green color was very pretty and I liked all the cheese on top!

After the tomato salad, we had more bread. There were four choices offered and I chose a pretzel roll and an onion bread that was drenched in olive oil. I liked that both breads were very chewy and flavorful.

I thought that this pretzel roll kind of looked like it was an open mouth trying to eat something!

Next we had Branzino with Caramelized Coconut, Lime and Herb Salad. I really liked the sauce and enjoyed that the fish was very light. The skin was crunchy and crispy.

Risotto with Corn, Babette's Butter, and Braised Veal came next. Babette's butter is made with milk from a Jersey cow who lives in Vermont and is named Babette!!! The risotto was very creamy, but the rice was perfectly al dente, which means that it was perfectly cooked, firm, but not too hard.

This picture actually shows risotto with crab instead of veal because it was my mom's. My dad liked her version even more than ours!

After that, we had Potato Rosti with Gorgonzola Duck Confit and Black Truffle. Confit is meat cooked slowly in its own fat. These came out really hot, so my mom split them all for me to help them cool off. They were crispy fritters, but the potato inside was very melty.

I really liked all the truffle on top!

Our next course was Foie Gras Torchon with Gooseberry Jam, Blackberry and Lemon. Torchon means "dish towel" in French because the foie gras was traditionally wrapped in a towel for cooking. I liked the gooseberry jam and thought it went well with the the foie gras, which was very flavorful.

This picture is a little blurry, but it gives you the idea!

After that we had Glazed Short Rib with Kohlrabi, Granny Smith Apple and Lemongrass. Kohlrabi is a German turnip that is similar to cabbage. I really liked the glaze. The meat was very soft, which is how short rib is supposed to be prepared. I think that I prefer meat to be a little bit chewier. But this was still very good.

Our last meat course was Lamb with Smoked Kale, Roasted Garlic, and Hen of the Woods Mushroom. I preferred this meat to the short rib. And I liked the mushrooms a lot.

After the lamb, it was finally time for the cheese cart! My parents said that I could pick two. I chose one that the server said tasted like bacon, because I thought that sounded good, and a cow's milk cheese because I really like hard cheese. I had also said that I love comte, and so our server surprised us and brought us comte too! The cheese was served with crackers, pine nut brittle, tomato jam and honey. My mom and I LOVED the pine nut brittle!

The cow's milk cheese is on the top, the bacon cheese is in the middle and the comte is on the bottom. The bacon cheese was my favorite! I wish I remembered its name!!!!

Our dessert was called Maine Blueberry with Yuzu, Lemon, Basil, and White Chocolate-Blueberry glaze. It was a deconstructed mix of things. Meringue and blueberry sorbet were my favorite components.

At the end of the meal, our server let me come into the kitchen. I really liked seeing that there were two women at the pastry station. The kitchen was very clean and quiet and the head chef came over to say hello.

I loved Menton and I want to go back there again and have a different tasting menu. But I think maybe next time I'd skip the cheese cart and caviar. They were delicious, but I was stuffed at the end of this meal!!!!!!