bethysmalls

He has a ton more room to be insane now.

he’s saying the alphabet very very softly.

You may have gleaned from my last post that cakes and custards are not part of my diet anymore. At least non ones found in restaurants and grocery stores. I recently developed an egg allergy. And, as it turns out, eggs are in fricken everything! My favorite donut, my favorite tasty kake, my favorite Progresso soup! The humanity!

I’ve been slowly realizing things I’ve never even tried yet that, now, I’ll never be able to. I’m also thinking of new foods every day that I’ll never have again. Deviled eggs, meringue, EGG NOG!

But THEN! I saw it. Sitting in the dairy case: SOY egg nog! But could it be egg free, too? Yes! And it’s goooood, folks. And written across the top by the expiration date it says: Shake Well and Buy Often. I love cleverness in my vegan beverages.

For my 30th birthday, I wanted to do something special. Since I’m always afraid that no one will make a fuss (which is ultimately always what I want) (I love my birthday) I make plans for myself. Usually a party. But this year my preemptive strike was to make reservations at Le Bec Fin.

At first I made dinner reservations and then I perused the menu, specifically the tasting menu. The dinner tasting menus are between $80 and $185. Not really for me. So I changed it to a lunch reservation, because, why not? I still get to go to LBF and I don’t have to put a second mortgage on the house. Like I even know how to do that.

Anyway. I don’t know why I had pre-decided on the tasting menu. I guess the layout of the menu was just odd to me and I figured I’d just let the food come to me and enjoy the ride.

Course 1: Escargot

Not shown: The tiny lid that came on the pot. The handle was a snail. Adorable!

I was excited to try escargot for the first time. That excitement combined with the very buttery and nutty sauce the snails were swimming in carried me through most of this dish. My third to last snail became just too much to chew and I ended my first course with 2 untouched. I considered it a victory, nonetheless.

Course 2: Seared Sea Scallop.

(No photo because I forgot to take one)

I had great expectations for this dish. I was a little disappointed. It wasn’t that there was only one. It was that it didn’t appear to be seasoned in any way. Also, and maybe because I don’t have scallops very often, it tasted underdone.

Course 3: Mushroom Cappuccino

This was very good. A mushroom broth topped with milk foam and white pepper, intended to be consumed as if a cappuccino. They even brought out an extra one (Hoagey got a different prefixed meal that only had 3 courses) so that we would both have a little something.

Course 3: Tasty Tasty Lamb

I know it’s really hard to screw up lamb, but this was heavenly. My only complaint is that I could have eaten 3 times as much. It was served with a coffee parsnip puree and lamb jus. Blammo.

Dessert: (Sad trombone)

Due to my recent egg allergy, there was only 1 thing I could eat without potentially learning quickly how to use my new Epi Pen.

Sorbet Trio!

Hoagey had something called the Wendy. It had chocolate mousse, vanilla bean creme brulee and vanilla soaked chocolate sponge. He said it was awful.

Anyway. It had some incredible points. And it was quite an experience. The low points were more than compensated for later that night when my friends made a big fuss for me. There was lasagna from my wonderful mother, egg-less cupcakes from my brother and his sweetie, artichoke dip made with vegan-aise, a beautiful salad with pears and bleu cheese, and on and on and on. Oh and there was Chick Fil-A! And grasshopper pies from Plants on Deck and co! It was way better than LBF. Much better company, too.

***you can check out the rest of my LBF pics at flickr**